Events Unexpected
by Dbananad
Summary: Korra was crushed when Mako left with Asami. But, being the Avatar doesn't leave time for sadness. General Iroh of the United Forces is being crowned heir to the Fire Lord and Korra is required to go. However, when someone bursts into the ceremony, Korra's whole life and the destiny of the four nations may be altered. Korra/OC.
1. Fire Nation Vacation

**A/N: So excited to be doing this story. I have missed writing. I hope to be updating a bit quicker this time around, but this school year promises to be a, well not a nice word. I will leave it at that. Warning, there will be femslash and this fic is rated Mature for a reason. However, I do plan on having a storyline, hopefully a good one but I will let the readers decide that. Anyway, I will warn if there are lemons. There are none in this chapter. Please review!**

**Diclaimer: In an alternate universe I may own Avatar, however in this one I do not. I only own the OC's.**

The sun rose from the depths of the eastern horizon, lighting the sky over Republic City a pale pinkish hue. As it made its ascent the small amount of industrial smog covering the urban sprawl and the surrounding waters kept the rays a rustic orange. Air Temple Island was unnaturally quiet for the hour. Usually the island was lively even in the wee hours of the morning due to Meelo making a ruckus before the crack of dawn. The child's obvious decision to sleep in was not shared by every occupant of the temple. Two hollow cerulean eyes peered through one of the building's many windows, spanning the expanse of the city, but not truly seeing what was there. Korra took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh, wishing that all of her misfortunes would be exhaled with the air from her lungs.

It had been three months since her victory against Amon and her first use of the Avatar State. The exhilaration of regaining her powers and returning them to the others affected by Amon's perverse bloodbending had dulled. It had been only three weeks after that, when Mako had left. Bolin had told her that Asami had wanted to start a new life away from Republic City and the shadow of her father's treachery. Korra hadn't even been able to say goodbye. Mako hadn't even waited. The next few weeks, she barely noticed his absence as Tenzin had her running around along with Lin's force, capturing Equalist rebels still lurking around or going to conferences and trials. Then, about a month back, peace had ensued once more and she was no longer necessary. Too much time to think and too much misery running through her head made her a hollow of her former self. She still participated in the pro-bending tournaments per Bolin's request-or rather his incessant begging until she begrudgingly agreed- though it was painstakingly obvious that without Mako they weren't complete.

Her eyes came to rest on an airship lazily crawling in the ever-brightening sky. Sato's airplane designs had caught the attention of all of the inventors in Republic City and beyond, becoming the most popular new item. Still, they were far from perfect and larger cargo was still packed into the large basket under the zeppelin. Silently Korra imagined hopping onto it and going out on her own. Tenzin, Pema, and the kids- she included Bolin among them- would surely miss her, but they would manage. She would come back if there was trouble… maybe. Just the thought of having new scenery to distract her from the mundane feeling of the cold stone in her heart was enough to tug at the corners of her lips. She couldn't even remember the last time she had smiled. She didn't even know if she still had the capability.

Deciding that some fresh air would do her good, Korra stood from her seat at the windowsill and exited through the sliding door. Outside, the sea breeze blew a soothing fragrance into her nose. It did wonders for the minor headache that had been plaguing her sleepless mind. She moved past the open corridors that led to the meditation center. She had learned what seemed like months ago, though it had only been a week or two, that meditation was only a short reprieve. Still, the quiet was not unwelcome.

She sat on the cool floor. Crossing her legs into the meditation pose, she laid her right palm over her left and linked the tips of her thumbs. Her breathing became slower, more even. Her lids grew heavy and slid down to cover her sapphire irises and searching pupils. Her eyes moved behind the veil of darkness before becoming still. Aang and her reincarnations used to come to her before. However, her mind had become too dull in despair that they had soon begun to fade away. She had attempted links before and found that her past lives were never far away, but she didn't want their judgment and so stayed within her own self.

That was how Tenzin found her when he came for his own meditation, sitting straight-backed and facing the rising sun. The view would have been picturesque had a certain five-year-old boy not crash landed into the poor girl's lap. Korra started violently at the unexpected object pummeling into her at insane velocities. Her eyes returned to their monotone glaze after recognizing the impish smile and wide grey eyes. Meelo's own expression dampened a bit at her obvious apathy. Jinora and Ikki looked on from behind their father's yellow robe.

Tenzin himself cleared his throat before declaring, "The Fire Lord will be crowning his heir in a week's time. We will be expected to appear to witness it and you will be required to give your blessing. We will be leaving at dawn tomorrow. I wanted to let you know so that you could pack."

He almost expected Korra to start complaining about the short notice and grilling him about missing a Fire Ferret match. Instead all he got was a distant look and a small nod in acknowledgement. At times, all times, he missed the stormy fire that sparkled in Korra's eyes. Her friend's, no Mako had always been more than that to her, absence had caused more damage than Tenzin had realized at first. Silently he prayed for a spirit-sent solution. Katara was to be at the Fire Nation during the ceremonies. He sincerely hoped she would know what to do.

Acutely aware that she was not going to get anymore alone time, Korra relinquished her place in the meditation circle and walked to where breakfast was no doubt being served. The corridors had so long ago become familiar that she didn't even have to think about where she was going. Her feet simply took her where she wanted to go. The smell soon indicated that Pema was in the kitchen preparing something delicious.

Korra slid into the room to find Bolin dutifully sitting by the table with his utensils held in each hand. His cheerful smile made her feel guilty for not being able to reciprocate. He didn't seem fazed by her obvious lack of emotion, instead opting to turn his attention back to the door which separated them from the kitchen. Despite herself, Korra was hungry. Her stomach growled angrily in agreement.

"Soooooo," Bolin broke the silence after a few minutes when it became apparent that their food was not coming yet. "You guys are heading to the Fire Nation tomorrow huh?"

"Yeah," Korra replied mechanically.

"That's too bad. I don't know if I can get a replacement waterbender between then and our next tournament. Not that it matters much," his face fell when he recalled their last few matches. It was soon back to its bright glow when Pema came in with a platter heaped with rice pancakes. "And what am I going to do without your marvelous cooking?"

Pema smiled at him. "You'll manage somehow," she joked setting the food down and returning to get the second helping.

Tenzin and the children entered from the door that Korra had used. Meelo and Bolin attacked the meal with equal enthusiasm. Ikki and Jenora followed suit at a slower pace while Tenzin sat staring worriedly at Korra who was simply picking at the contents of her dish despite the hunger she felt gnawing at her insides.

"Eat something Korra," Pema chastised as she came to sit as well.

"Sorry," Korra mumbled before taking a tentative bite. The pancakes were always irresistible and she was soon inhaling them without trepidation. Pema smiled approvingly. "So, the new future Fire Lord is going to be chosen? Isn't it obvious who it's going to be?"

Tenzin smiled in barely veiled astonishment at Korra's actual attempt at conversation. "Well, Fire Lord Zuko had a daughter who took the title, and then her husband became the Fire Lord. She resigned her title to be Fire Lady when she gave birth to General Iroh of the United Forces. He is the only one next in line so it should be him. It is more of an event to uphold tradition than one of necessity."

"And I'm just giving him my 'okay?'" Korra verified. The whole endeavor seemed like a huge waste of time. Then again, she had nothing better to do.

"Yes, that is the extent of it. Though General Iroh isn't too keen on taking the throne either."

"It'll be nice to see General Iroh again, won't it Korra?" Bolin said with raised eyebrows.

Korra let out a nervous laugh that she fully regretted the moment it escaped her lips. The General was handsome, no one could dispute that fact, but she didn't really feel it with him. Whatever _it_ was. Bolin, on the other hand, took her little chortle as a positive sign. He wasn't too happy with his brother's blatant rebuttal of Korra's feelings. Finding someone new, he thought, would be good for both Korra and, by extension, Mako.

"Alright," Korra said as she stood. "I guess I should start packing early."

She tried to sound nonchalant about the trip, yet the slightest trill of excitement managed to escape her. She had wished to travel the world after all. Perhaps it wasn't the exact circumstances as in her imagination, but she would take what she could get.

Meelo was the first one up unlike the previous day. His raucous laughter and shrill shrieks filled every crevice of the air temple. Korra, who hadn't been able to sleep at all the previous night, buried her head in her pillow. Whatever shelter she was seeking in the plush cotton fabric was not to be found. Within five minutes she was up. Her mousy locks were in a mess. She half expected a family of sparrowjays to pop out and start flying around her head.

Her bag had been packed in all of four hours the previous day. She herself had spent fifteen minutes assembling her essentials. Then Tenzin had Pema come in and help her arrange the fine dresses that she would be wearing in court. The supple silk was like water running through her fingers. She preferred her usual ensemble of blues, taking two dresses styled after the moon pulling the tides. The small waves were made of beads; the frothing foam was the finest of embroideries. Pema had accounted for the rest. Rich violets mixed with deep crimson satin. Gold frocks were mixed with pale milky white ones. Jewels were laid aside to be placed carefully on top of the pile. Pema had also agreed to do all of Korra's hairstyles as she was only talented in making her casual ponytail and hanging bangs.

The brush running through Korra's hair snagged on a knot and pulled her from her recollections. She said a curse under her breath and set to work fixing it. Once she had control over the unruly locks, she set about dressing and picking through anything else she might want to take.

Half an hour before the airship was set to take off, Korra went to say goodbye to Naga. The polar bear dog was whining, perhaps sensing that her owner and longtime friend was leaving. "It's okay girl"

Korra scratched behind the floppy white ears. She had been ignoring Naga much as everyone else. Now she was regretting not spending more time with her pet. The dog looked just as depressed as she felt.

"I'll be back soon. It's only for a week or two. Just going to say 'hi' to the royal family and leave," saying it made it sound absurd. Korra lightly laughed to herself. Catching herself she wondered about her sudden good mood. Maybe a change was really all that she needed.

With one last hug, Korra left Naga and headed to where Tenzin and his family were boarding. She added her bag to the pile of luggage that was heaped to the side of the walkway. The airship itself was a dull red resembling rusty iron. The sigil of the air nomads was plastered on both sides in a bright yellow that clashed with the other color. The cabin itself was spacious enough; three bedrooms, one bathroom-much to the girls' horror-, and a viewing area that was three quarters glass. The food would be served from the staff quarters below. Meelo had already made himself at home, spinning along the walls on his air scooter. Ikki and Jinora fought over who was going to stay with Meelo and who got to bunk with Korra. In the end, Tenzin drew the short straw and was paired with his son. Pema took the baby and Ikki into the other room. Jinora gave Korra a wide smile and proceeded to jump on her bed. Korra herself was still exhausted and flung herself onto the bed. She was happy that they had decided against riding sky bison. They were quicker, but a saddle didn't compare to a soft bed.

Korra's first glimpse of the Fire Nation was obscured by the thick tendrils of ash that floated from the active volcanoes. She had apparently 'missed the good part' according to Ikki, while she had been sleeping. It didn't bother her that much. It had been two long days of flying and her energy had been all but drained.

The smoke parted above the massive dormant volcano that held the Fire Nation capital. Statues of Zuko and the heroes of the Hundred Year War adorned the pavilions. Tiny cars could be seen zooming along the pale cream streets. Flags flew in the wind, emblazoned with the nation's sigil, obsidian on a scarlet field trimmed with gold. The palace itself had not been changed since before Fire Lord Zuko's time, except the part that burned down in his Agni Kai with his siter. The airship sailed over the volcano's other rim, obscuring the city from view once more. Korra raised an eyebrow at Tenzin in confusion.

"The airship dock is at the base of the volcano," he explained knowingly.

She glanced at the long, winding road that led from the now visible ports to the entrance to the capital. Her stomach churned just from the sight of it.

"Hey Dad!" an excited Meelo yelled from across the room. "Can we jump out and glide down to the city? Ikki doesn't wanna walk."

"Hey," an indignant Ikki protested, "it was your idea."

Meelo responded with a mature gesture of pulling down an eyelid and sticking out his tongue. Tenzin simply shook his head and dismissed the idea, much to the protest of both children. Korra wouldn't admit it, but she would have rather done as they suggested than ride in a rickety car to the top of a volcano.

The gears under the zeppelin groaned as they uncurled and lodged into the matching grooves on the docking bay. The clash of metal against metal set Korra's teeth on edge. A small shiver of anticipation shook her shoulders, though she made sure that her expression of aloofness stayed plastered on her face. The door of the cabin dropped down with a hiss and a billow of steam. A scrawny man wearing fine red robes and a tall gold-rimmed matching hat was standing before the steps that led to the metallic floor. The business frown he wore was partially hidden by his thin moustache and trimmed goatee. He nodded solemnly to Tenzin and Korra as they made their descent. Pema and the children got a more casual tilt of the head.

"This way Master Tenzin, Avatar Korra. Your coach awaits," he stated briskly before turning on his heel and strutting to a shiny new model based on the Sato-mobile. Korra hunched her shoulders and followed.

Pema seemed apprehensive upon assessing the remaining space left in the vehicle after her husband and Korra had taken their places. "Where are the kids going to go?"

The man gave her an annoyed look from his position next to the driver. "The presence of Avatar Korra and Master Tenzin is required in the royal palace immediately. You and your children will be driven to your guest lodgings by the chauffer behind this one."

Pema glared at the man but could do nothing but acquiesce and board the next car over. Korra let herself be lulled by the rumbling of the engine and the slight shake of the frame. The soft leather on her back was warm but not hot since the sun was blocked by the large plumes rising from the mouth of the smaller active volcanoes. Ahead and above them, the rock wall reached into the heavens, its hollowed zenith lost in the mists of ash.

"-Korra?" she snapped to attention when her name was spoken questioningly by Tenzin.

"Sorry what?" she asked, the blood coloring her cheeks a faint pink.

"The naming has been moved up. I was wondering if you felt alright to go now?" he repeated patiently.

"Huh, naming what?" Korra still hadn't quite registered the conversation.

"Of the new heir to the throne," Tenzin supplied helpfully.

"Oh… yeah, I feel up to it," she looked down at her somewhat rumpled attire. She was wearing her usual light blue tank top and baggy pants. "Am I okay going in this?"

"Yes, I'm sure you will be alright."

"Why was it moved?"

The man who had come to greet them turned to be heard over the rush of the wind, "There is a rumor that the young General Iroh may be challenged by another candidate for the throne. As far as I know, there is no other person with legitimate claim; however we cannot be too cautious."

"Wouldn't that work out better for Iroh?" Korra interjected. "I mean, he doesn't even want to be Fire Lord, does he?"

The man reeled back as though she had struck him. His frown was pulled so far down that his goatee almost reached the fancy dragon ringed neckline of his robes. "The Prince is the only true heir. It would be degrading to the sanctity of Agni's blood to have someone else on the throne."

"Isn't the current Fire Lord only married to a member of Zuko's family?" Korra replied haughtily.

The man narrowed his eyes but wasn't able to come up with a decent argument. Instead he mumbled an indignant, "It is different in that case."

Korra rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her knuckles. Her elbow was connected to the rim of the car and sent soothing vibrations through her frame. The sea was below them now, a stormy deep blue. The waves frothed against the stony land, here white, there green as the tide retreated into the surf. Seagull-pelicans shrieked and dove to catch fish, invisible to their silent observer. She couldn't help but fill her lungs with the scent of the sea and think of home. The Northern Water Tribe where she had trained. Master Katara's gentle smile and crinkled brow.

A bump sent her fist flying painfully into her jaw, chasing distant memories from her mind. Here, there was no snow or ice. The air clung heavy with the vapors of the waters below. The heat caused small beads of sweat to gather along her light brown forehead and the tip of her nose. She lazily wiped at them and new ones soon came to take their place.

"The tunnel leading into the city should not be too far now," their stuck-up guide informed them. Korra decided to call him Panties-in-a-Bunch. It may not have been as original as Toph's nicknames, or as creative, but it fit her purposes since she refused to learn his real name. He hadn't offered it anyway.

The city was even more magnificent than her first glimpse. The houses were neatly positioned in a circular formation with streets leading to the Royal Palace in the center. The walls were a light white or pale crème. The roofs ended in sharp edges that stuck out far beyond the walls, colored with red tile and black wooden beams. Many windows held patterns of dragons entwined in vines or flames, Korra was uncertain as they passed them too quickly for her to see clearly. People walked along pristine sidewalks. Shops held their wares displayed in their windows or hung on open doors, their owners shouting advertisements to passerby's. Small children ran ahead of their parents, smiles plastered on their faces. Korra could have sworn that she saw a few parks with ponds and wispy willow trees in the distance. The street was tiled in a way that caused the car to bump up and down frequently, creating a shaky view of the surroundings.

The inner ring was full of much larger houses and huge expanses of gardens. Quaint bridges spanned across man-made rivers full of colorful koi fish. Nobles wearing rich silks in vibrant colors walked peacefully among their blooming flowers and emerald grass. The women held tiny parasols in their dainty hands, spinning them with the breeze and creating illusions of pink and yellow flower petals dancing in the wind.

They had finally come up to the palace. The central tower rose into the blue sky like a pillar of flame. Three stories jutted out of the building, outlined in golden supports, leading down to the large crimson doors. Two buildings stuck out to the right and left of the central building. Their three stories were also outlined in glimmering gold. Large stone slabs held the first stories aloft high above their heads. They reached the end of the driveway. The chauffer opened Korra's door first then went around getting Tenzin's. Korra smirked at the way the man obviously ignored Panties-in-a-Bunch. Two guards in the antique armor of the elite guard from Zuko's time stood at attention. Panties-in-a-Bunch showed a piece of paper to one. The guard nodded and the heavy doors opened into a large hallway the torches on the large marble pillars were still lit with fire instead of the now popular electricity. The plush carpet felt spongy under her feet. Korra longed to take the uncomfortable boots off of her feet and wiggle her toes in it. Alas, Pants-in-a-Bunch beckoned them onward and she had to abandon her fantasy.

They walked through an assortment of hallways matching the first in all but size. _These guys sure love their columns and fire,_ Korra couldn't help but think, _and every bloody thing is either red, gold, or black. _They rounded a corner and came before the ceiling sized doors that led to the throne room. Korra mentally braced herself for the breathtakingly grand scene that lay behind the heavy wood. With barely a sigh, the golden hinges swung in and a set of blue eyes widened.

The interior was lined with more rows of columns than Korra cared to count. Golden dragons wound up the glistening marble and snarled down at them, teeth gleaming in the sunlight that filtered through large windows on both the right and left sides of the room. The windows had been a new installment made by Fire Lord Zuko to make the room less foreboding. To Korra, his efforts fell just a tad bit short. Perhaps it was the hundreds of golden reptilian eyes turned to her. Or perhaps it was the wall of dancing scarlet flames that stretched before her.

"Air Master Tenzin of Republic City and the Avatar, Korra," Panties-in-a-Bunch stated importantly.

The wall of flames parted and a tall man stepped down. His robes were shiny obsidian, as though made of carbonate. The trim that he used was almost reflected white in the sunlight, the lines on the uppermost fold of his robes coming together into the Fire nation sigil. The man's face was worn but his storm-grey eyes were kind and told of the hidden power in him. His jet black hair was peppered with grey and held tightly in a bun with the royal crown placed imperiously on top.

"Master Tenzin, Avatar," he said bowing his head in courtesy. They emulated.

"Fire Lord Inzei, it is a pleasure," Tenzin greeted formally. The two men then gave each other small smiles to break the cold atmosphere.

"Fire Lord," Korra supplemented lowering her head.

"I apologize for the inconvenience and urgency with which you were summoned here. However, certain rumors are better addressed than forgotten," the Fire Lord swept past them. Tenzin went to fall in step with him. Korra herself stayed a step behind, unsure of herself were she to be alongside the formidable man. Panties-in-a-Bunch was at the very end of their procession, probably still wearing that infuriating frown.

"I completely understand," Tenzin was saying. "So, tell me, what are these rumors exactly? Your servant was kind enough to give them a vague mention but I am lost on the details."

"There is talk of another suitor for the throne. Usually that would not bother me as we can play the 'divine right to rule' card. This particular person, on the other hand, is said to be of Agni's bloodline. I know that my wife has not born any other children but Iroh. It is an enigma, yet I do not wish to ignore it."

"You are wise not to," Tenzin's brows were knitting together in his usual thoughtful expression. "Where is the ceremony to be held?"

"In the old Agni Kai arena as it has always been. The Fire Sages should be waiting and Iroh is being prepped as well."

Korra silently felt somewhat sorry for the poor general. He had no wish to have such a tremendous duty heaped onto him, and yet there it was. It reminded her of her first appearance in Republic City. Not when she had been on her own there, but when all of the eyes turned to her, all of the people's hopes riding on her shoulders, all of the hate of the nonbenders burning into her back. It was a lot of pressure. Not something she would wish on anyone much less a 'friend.'

Fire Lord Inzei had led them outside into a long courtyard. It was covered in fine sand, surrounded by two walkways and one large building sticking out at the far end. Five wizen old men in flowing crimson stood in a huddle. Their heads rose when they heard their approach. They wore strange hats that almost looked as though giant koi fish were eating their heads. Korra had to stifle a chuckle.

"Fire Lord Inzei, we are ready to begin. All we need is your son," the tallest man spoke in a voice that made gravel appear soft. His white beard shook over his chest as his lips moved to form the words. Korra had the sudden urge to make a grab at it. An urge she forced herself not to act on.

"Very well, let the nobles in. They must be held as witnesses as well or I will never hear the end of it," Inzei said exasperatedly.

"Yes Fire Lord," the sage bowed and then tilted his head to the others and then to the doors leading into the hallways. Two peeled away from their places atop the stairs and moved to open them.

The colorful nobles clamored in as though they themselves were children waiting in anticipation for something incredible to happen. Korra suddenly felt all of their eyes on them. She had thought that she was used to the attention, but the moment those ebony pupils dilated to take her in, she felt tiny as an ant under glass. The loud talking gave way to softer murmurs as the handsome dark-haired man stepped out from where Korra and the others had come. His golden eyes were darkened despite the sun that now shown upon them in all of its glory.

Iroh came up to them with long purposeful strides. The corners of his pale lips were slightly tilted down though he did his best to keep a composed expression. He wore the white uniform of a general, the bronze buttons shining to match the decorum and his eyes.

The Fire Lord and Airbending Master walked up to the stairway, shaded by the sharp overhang of the building above their heads. Korra stood to the opposite of them. The Fire sages lined themselves in a 'v' formation, the eldest standing furthest from the young man who had come to stand atop the stairs. Iroh turned his back to the sages and kneeled, looking out into the crowd watching him. The head sage walked up from the shadows, his hands holding a bright three-point crown, until he stood directly behind the prince.

"Prince Iroh, only son of Fire Lord Inzei, you have come here to be crowned as official Crown Prince to the Fire Nation. Do you take the oath to serve your people and your country in times of war and peace? To uphold justice in your rule and punish those who would take power and contort it to suit their own needs? To dictate when your leadership is necessary and to listen when it is not? To-"

A large bang resounded from across the courtyard. All heads snapped to a small dust cloud that had appeared by one of the doorways in the left hallway. The doors themselves had been blown off of their hinges and lay broken in shards on the ground. A lone silhouette rose from a squatting position to a standing one. Korra squinted her eyes to catch a glimpse of the intruder.

"Guards!" Inzei called. Three men raced toward the figure still hidden behind the veil of dust. They moved apprehensively at first before falling upon it. One swept out the figure's legs while the others made a grab for its arms. All the while the figure did nothing to oppose them, rather complying and moving with them.

"Bring this intruder forward," Inzei commanded in a forceful tone. Iroh was looking almost relieved at the interruption.

The guards brought the figure forward and forced it onto its knees. The first thing Korra noticed about the person kneeling before them was the sleek black hair. Two long jet bangs hung down just past the hidden jaw line. The rest was carefully pulled back into a formal topknot held together by a small golden crown with three points, the central one sticking up further than the others. A crown identical to the one held in the hands of the fire sage. It was now obvious to Korra that the person was a girl, probably about her age if not a bit older. She wore a light blood orange shirt that was buttoned over to her left side, much like an officer's uniform. However it fell short to make space for a black belt that wound around her waist. Her pants flared out at the knees but were tucked into the long slender boots that ran from her calves to end in points at her feet.

"Speak your name and your purpose," Inzei instructed.

The girl lifted her head and met his eyes without even a flinch. She stayed silent, observing them for a few moments, giving each person before her a piercing glance. When her eyes met Korra's, she felt a shiver run through her. The power and intensity behind the molten orbs of gold was astounding. So enraptured was Korra, that she didn't make the connection until the girl spoke up.

"My name is Kaji. I am of Agni's lineage by the blood of Princess Azula, Commander of the Fire Nation's armies during the reign of Fire Lord Zuko. I hereby challenge Prince Iroh to an Agni Kai for the right of the Fire Nation throne."

**P.S. Please Review. I know it is a bit slow but chapter 2 is done. I will post it as soon as I have revised it. Reviews make me revise faster. I apologize for any errors in advance and will promptly fix them if they are pointed out.**


	2. Agni Kai

**A/N: Finished revising! Yes! I hope I can keep this up because that would be awesome. Thank you for the lovely reviews and favorites and alerts and you guys are awesome! So, I present to you chapter 2. Please review when you are done so that I may show my mom that I may become a happy puddle of happy goo. :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the thoughts in my head and the OC's it invented.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"Prince Iroh, only son of Fire Lord Inzei, you have come here to be crowned as official Crown Prince to the Fire Nation. Do you take the oath to serve your people and your country in times of war and peace? To uphold justice in your rule and punish those who would take power and contort it to suit their own needs? To dictate when your leadership is necessary and to listen when it is not? To-"

A large bang resounded from across the courtyard.

The guards brought the figure forward and forced it onto its knees. The first thing Korra noticed about the person kneeling before them was the sleek black hair. Two long jet bangs hung down just past the hidden jaw line. The rest was carefully pulled back into a formal topknot held together by a small golden crown with three points, the central one sticking up further than the others. A crown identical to the one held in the hands of the fire sage.

The girl lifted her head and met Inzei's eyes without even a flinch. She stayed silent, observing those before her for a few moments, giving each person before her a piercing glance. Iroh and Tenzin shared the same awestruck expression. The sages looked outraged but knew to stand down. When the girl's eyes met Korra's, she felt a shiver run through her. The power and intensity behind the molten orbs of gold, was astounding. So enraptured was Korra, that she didn't make the connection until the girl spoke up.

"My name is Kaji. I am of Agni's lineage by the blood of Princess Azula, Commander of the Fire Nation's armies during the reign of Fire Lord Zuko. I hereby challenge Prince Iroh to an Agni Kai for the right of the Fire Nation throne."

The courtyard had gone completely silent. There was not even the sound of fabric rustling in a breeze or from a slight movement of the wearer's body. Everyone in the space was stone still, holding their breath, waiting to see what would come next. Some wanted to question the validity of the statement. Others wondered whether they were about to witness an Agni Kai for the throne.

Korra couldn't take her eyes off of the finely sculpted face with its sharp nose and piercing eyes. Kaji had turned her attention back to Fire Lord Inzei so Korra could just barely make out the end of one golden iris.

Kaji then turned her head to pointedly look at Iroh. He frankly looked like he would have rather been anywhere else. The guards had been so shocked by Kaji's proclamation that their grips had loosened and their arms had fallen back to their sides. Kaji took the opportunity to rise and address the stunned young prince.

"Do you accept my challenge of Agni Kai?" her voice was gentle but stern.

"I-I," Iroh couldn't seem to get his vocal chords to work.

"He will not!" Inzei seemed to have composed himself the fastest. "Your claim is absurd. You have no proof that you are of Azula's bloodline."

"Come now, if my appearance doesn't say it all then what will it take to convince you?" a smirk spread through the full lips, painted crimson as blood. "Perhaps this."

Her right hand moved up, lifted by its wrist before she snapped it open palm up and a small blue flame came into existence a few inches above her splayed fingers. Korra's breath caught in her throat. Tenzin's audible gasp and Inzei's step back were enough indication that she wasn't the only one struck dumb by this girl yet again. The smirk Kaji wore only grew at their wide eyes. Korra, along with everyone else, knew that cerulean flames were very uncommon, even among the master firebenders. In fact, the last known person to have mastered them was the late Princess Azula. The others on record had also all been directly linked to the bloodline of the Fire Lords. There was no questioning Kaji's claim, not with her blazing blue fire wiggling around her fingers.

"This- you- you have no right to challe-" the head sage began only to be promptly cut off.

"I have the right. I am of age and of the bloodline. Princess Azula may have lost her title for a few years but she was fully reinstated and became renowned for her military prowess and aide in keeping order during Zuko's reign. There is nothing that you can do to discredit my claim," Kaji smoothly stated, as though a passing remark about the weather.

The sage glowered but couldn't find anything to say. The nobles' hungry eyes were soaking up the chaos. They were leopard-sharks waiting for the first piece of meat to be thrown. Korra could see it in their eyes. They were reading the situation, calculating which candidate for the throne they would support. The courtyard was still once more, a tense silence that permeated through the air and penetrated each of their hearts. Kaji stood tall and waited for the Fire Lord's inevitable surrender; Inzei stood, sweating, knowing he was at a disadvantage but having faith in his son; Iroh didn't know what to do so he remained kneeling, facing the girl who wanted his crown; Tenzin reminded himself to breathe and decided that it was for the Spirits to decide who would be victorious; Korra stood as a statue, enraptured by Kaji's tight-set jaw, her piercing eyes, her painted lips set in determination.

"I accept," Iroh's voice shattered the silence. Many visibly flinched, the moment's emotions held taught for fear of overflowing.

"Iroh!" Inzei's voice dripped with disapproval.

"I have to do this Father," Iroh stood tall, towering over Kaji with his own natural build and the added height of the stairs. "She has the right and I must defend my title. It is my first test; to see if I am worthy of the Fire Nation."

"…" Inzei relented albeit grudgingly.

"I will face you Kaji of Agni's blood," Iroh directed his comment to her. His voice was ice cold and caused Korra to shift away ever so slightly. Kaji seemed unfazed, staying where she was, head held high and back ramrod straight.

The nobles all gathered into the covered hallways. Those in front gripped the banisters where there were some or leaning against columns where there wasn't. Iroh took his position on the side closest to his father, Tenzin, Korra, and the fire sages. Kaji moved with the grace of a predator, the muscles in her arms straining and then relaxing as she flexed her fists. Iroh turned to face away from his opponent. Kaji's steps grew smaller until she came to a halt at the far end of the arena.

The fighters turned in unison as though by some invisible, inaudible signal and took up their stances. Iroh chose to sink into a low horse stance, his side to Kaji, right arm extended out, left in a guard position by his chest. Kaji sunk lower into a fall-away, putting most of her weight into her back leg. Her left hand extended, right hand hovering in a block over her head. Their breathing slowed and then matched.

Iroh was the first to attack. His left fist flew forward as he took a wide step and sent a giant fireball in Kaji's direction. She didn't move until the flames were almost upon her. Her back leg kicked out and she dropped into a roll. Her foot erupted into azure flames as it swung up, cutting Iroh's flames in two. He growled under his breath. Kaji's smile had not fallen. She picked herself up from her crouched position and readied her hands once more, left in front of right, fingers open. Their distance had closed somewhat leaving a few yards separating them. Iroh closed the distance with a quick run, leveling one hand to the ground and spreading a wall of flames to his side, protection for any attack that might have been directed to him. Kaji answered his advance with a move similar to his own, running the opposite way of him and dragging her own wall of flames to her left to ward off his attack. The burst of heat that came from the two waves crashing into each other was so intense that the front line of the crowd was forced back to avoid minor burns. Korra felt her eyes moisten after the shock but refused to blink lest she miss a second of the duel.

Iroh had been blown off his center a bit so he rolled to his side to regain his stance. Kaji jumped on a jet of her own flame and landed with her back to Korra. Her left side was covered in soot, but she was otherwise unharmed. Her feet shifted into a front horse stance. Bringing her arms in two outward circles, she gathered a massive amount of blue fire between her arms, holding it against her chest. Her feet sank into the ground leaving small furrows into the sand. When she brought her arms forward and unleashed the stream of flames it was as though the whole world had suddenly become blue. Before Korra's eyes; the nobles, the courtyard, and the buildings surrounding them were painted as though they were swimming in a deep sea. Iroh's pupils dilated at the massive wave coming at him. His mind seemed to freeze, trying to think of a way to survive yet coming up blank. At the last second he dropped into a ball and covered himself in a sphere of his orange flames. The blue wave of destruction passed him and was deflected slightly by the counterclockwise spin of the orange fire.

Korra lost sight of Iroh behind the barrage of Kaji's attack. The last thing she had seen was him ducking into a circle of flames that covered his body. She felt afraid for him, and yet, there was a strange thrum in her chest. A sort of warmth spreading through her as she saw Kaji pull out of her dropped stance; a warmth that had nothing to do with the flurry of burning chi that was still tearing through the Agni Kai arena. She shook her head to clear away the feeling and to give her eyes a break from all of the sudden bright lights.

A gasp from the crowd brought her attention back to where a very battered, but still alive, Iroh was getting to his feet. His clothes were either singed or burnt to crisps. A large portion of his shirt was gone exposing the flesh beneath, slightly pinkish from the high temperatures that had surrounded him. His pants went only to his knees, the right going a bit further down. He still retained one of his boots, the other only hanging to his foot by a strip. His eyes shone with anger and a hint of something else. _It isn't fear,_ Korra tried to tell herself, _but who in their right mind wouldn't be afraid?_

Kaji had taken her usual pose, rocking back between her back leg and her front. Her arms moved up and down with the sway of her hips. Her breathing was a bit shallower than it had been before, but soon it leveled out. Iroh stumbled over his torn shoe, or perhaps a hidden injury, and took up a shaky front stance. His face was set in determination, lips drawn in a pale line. He knew that he would have to finish Kaji with this last move. He wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. Kaji seemed to know his exact thoughts. The first few fireballs he sent her way, she didn't even block. Instead, she wove through them with careful footwork. Iroh could feel the burn in his muscles. Black spots began to appear in the corners of his vision.

Inzei couldn't watch how badly his son was losing. It had nothing to do with honor or Iroh's skill anymore. He was simply a worried parent looking upon his child; his child in pain; his child fighting to simply stay up; his child being beaten. The Fire Lord's fists were white from being clenched so hard. He wanted to avert his eyes; he wanted to command for the Agni Kai to be ceased; he wanted to gather his boy in his arms. Instead he forced himself to stand stoically. Iroh would not appreciate a blow to his integrity. If he was to lose, he would lose with courage and grace.

Tenzin narrowed his eyes at Kaji's back. The girl fought like none that he had ever seen. Her fire was hot with the intensity of a blue star, outshining even the sun. Her shoulders held no tension until the last second before unleashing her barrages. She moved like a waterbender, not quite with the lightness of airbending, when evading Iroh's strikes. Win or lose, and he was starting to see the apparent outcome, he would have to ask her about her tutelage.

Iroh gasped for air. His whole body felt as though it was on fire and not in a good way. His lungs filled to their capacity and still came up short. His arms could barely keep in front of him. Taking one last steadying breath, he centered his emotions. His arms began the sweeping motions that would channel the electric current through his body. Lightening had become a sort of mainstream ability for firebenders over the years; however, his family still retained an ancient power in their lightening strikes that held no rival. With another twist he sunk his hands into his side, gathering the static energy from his stomach into his finger tips. With a mighty roar he struck his connected index and middle fingers forward and released a streak of livid white lightening.

Korra's eyes widened as the beam began moving in her general direction. She knew the blast was not meant for her, but the message didn't seem to reach her stomach which was in knots. The lightening moved with ferocious intensity and yet it seemed to be coming in a sick sort of slow motion. Korra's eyes flicked to where Kaji was standing. The girl hadn't even twitched a finger. The lightening was right on top of her and she was in no way reacting. Korra felt her heart stop. She didn't know why but she didn't want the girl to be hurt. It sent a cold feeling down her spine to think of the injuries that she would sustain if the electricity hit her.

Kaji watched the lightening come to her. It was truly splendid. There were only two people she knew that had lightening that could match and, perhaps, surpass it. The first was her master and grandmother, Azula. The second, well, she smiled to herself, _they will soon find out._ Iroh's attack had reached close enough to give the dramatic effect she desired. Her wrists flicked in two small arcs, sweeping in harmony with her hips. Once she felt the familiar power fill her center, she extended her connected middle and index fingers. With an explosive crackle, scorching purple lightening jettisoned forward to meet Iroh's own white electricity. The two arcs met in the center of the arena with such an explosive contusion, as cannot have been described. The light that was produced was so brilliant that those who didn't look away had their corneas slightly seared and their retinas permanently damaged. The buildings and surrounding landscape disappeared behind the suffocating blanket of white. The thunder produced from the two separate blasts and the collision caused a small streak of blood to come from both combatants' ears. For the rest, it simply left a loud ringing in their heads.

It took a few moments for Korra's eyes to adjust to being open, though she had closed them before the two blasts. She could hear nothing and her surroundings were spotted with black, blue, and red splotches. It was frightening at first. She hadn't even realized that the blast had floored her until she laid her head back against the cold tile floor. Her foot was caught on one of the stairs and throbbed dully with pain. She waited for a few moments before attempting to pick herself up. She supported her aching back on her elbow then turned and caught herself with a palm to the floor. Her knees came next. Korra silently cursed as a flash of pain ran up her leg from her foot. The ankle had been twisted in her fall. She blindly swung her arm around her until she came into contact with one of the pillars that held up the roof over her head. She pulled her body up and testily placed her weight onto her uninjured foot. Her eyes had somewhat adjusted and she was picking up shapes. The arena was behind her so she twisted her good foot so that she was leaning against the support of the pillar and able to turn.

The field was hazy, whether it was from her eyes still adjusting or from sand billowing in clouds, Korra did not know. All she knew was that there was a dark shape standing among the billowing particles of earth. The sand settled at about the same rate as Korra's eyesight improved. The curtains covering the shape had finally come to rest on the ground once more. It was then that Korra caught her first glimpse of Kaji since the deadly lightening blitzkrieg.

Kaji's hair billowed freely, having come undone from its pristine topknot. She appeared to be holding the small crown pin in her hand. A slight trickle of blood ran down from her shoulder to her fingers and then dripped to the dirt below. The shirt she had worn was mostly intact, except for the hem which was singed off, though its blood orange coloring was now much paler. Her belt lay in pieces of black fabric under her feet. Her pants had lost their flare bottoms and clung to her mid-thighs. The shiny boots she had worn were now covered with dust to the point that the original color had even been lost under the brown film. She stumbled back a few steps but maintained her footing.

The rest of the sand had settled. Korra gazed in wonder as small shards of glass started to rain down over the combatant's head. Kaji brought her hand up to shield her face from the tiny pricks brought about by the sharp particles. Korra turned her head to gaze across the arena to where Iroh had stood. At first she couldn't make him out and, for a few short and dreadful seconds, she thought he had been completely obliterated. Her breath let out in a sharp sigh when a clump of beige that had been blended with the ground groaned and moved into a more comfortable position. A small tuft of black hair was visible now, indicating that its owner was in fact still intact.

"Do you forfeit, Prince Iroh?" Kaji said after she had regained some semblance of control on her breathing.

There was an audible grunt from the fallen prince. His vocal chords, along with everything in his body, refused to serve their purpose and therefore he was left with no answer. It was answer enough for Kaji. She turned on her heel and came to stand before the stairs. Her eyes momentarily glanced at Korra. Korra immediately felt a rush of blood come to her face and covered it with a scowl while she pretended to examine her injured ankle. When she glanced up through her, now even messier, hair, Kaji had already turned her attention to Fire Lord Inzei.

"I have won the Agni Kai. I believe that means that I now have the right to be heir to the title of Fire Lord," the last bit was said as more of a statement than a question.

Inzei, who had also been thrown inside of the outcropping building, staggered up from his slumped position. His eyes flickered first to the triumphant gaze of the girl before him, then to the field of battle. It seemed that he too missed the Prince's presence. His eyes widened in fear.

"He's alive," Kaji said to quell his fear.

"Thank Agni," Inzei breathed. He had seen his son shift onto his back indicating that he was very much still alive. He believed his eyes more than Kaji's statement. Having made sure of his son's well-being, if it could even be called that, Inzei finally acknowledged Kaji's presence.

"I have won," she stated simply.

"I know," Inzei replied gravely.

"Do you recognize me as your heir?"

"I do."

"Then crown me."

Inzei turned to the stunned Fire Sages. They had all at some point lost their 'fish hats' and were frantically trying to find them. More than a few probably wore them to hide that they had more hair on their faces than on their heads. Inzei cleared his throat to get their attention. "It appears there will be a slight modification to the ceremony."

Inzei then turned back to Kaji. "You will forgive me a few moments to make sure my son gets to the healing ward."

Kaji nodded her head though it was clearly not a question. Inzei stepped off of the dais and walked to his son. On the way, he spoke to some of the guards who ran off, most probably to find a healer or a gurney.

Korra slumped down into a sitting position, resting her aching body against the column behind her. A worried and much frazzled looking Tenzin came out of the shadows of the hallway. His eyes met hers and she gave him a small smile of reassurance. He then took in the surrounding mayhem that was unraveling. The nobles were clamoring amongst each other, some in excitement, others in awe; about the sudden change in the future monarchy. Already the men were sizing up the young woman who had just won the right to the throne. The men openly spoke and threw approving or conniving glances. The women hid their gossip behind ornate flowered fans. Kaji herself was still standing before the stairs, looking unsure as to whether to go down or await the Fire Lord's return from her position. In the end, she made no move to leave.

The gurney came to take Prince Iroh to the section of the palace where a team of doctors awaited to take care of his wounds. Inzei was coming up to stand in his original position by Tenzin for the new crowning ceremony.

"Kneel," prompted the head sage. Kaji took a knee, her back turned to the sage and facing the eager onlookers. "The crown you have in your hand is one befitting a princess. Do you wish to use it instead? It is of the same design."

Kaji spared a glance at the small crown digging into her delicate pale flesh. The scarlet of her blood stained two of the tips and some of the base. "No, I wish for the crown that would have been given to Prince Iroh had he won."

The head sage bowed his ascent and beckoned for the others to bring forth the gold piece. Kaji let their old gnarled fingers run through her silken hair, pulling it back into a topknot. They wound a deep red ribbon around the ebony strands. The crown was then ceremoniously held above her head.

"Kaji of the blood of Agni," the sage began the speech once more. "Do you take the oath to serve your people and your country in times of war and peace?"

"I swear," Kaji proclaimed, loud enough for those in the crowd to hear, her eyes flickering across their faces.

"To uphold justice in your rule and punish those who would take power and contort it to suit their own needs?"

"I swear."

"To dictate when your leadership is necessary and to listen when it is not?"

"I swear."

"To be true to the Fire Nation and its people above all else?"

"I swear."

"Then, by the divine power given to us by Agni and as his voice on this plain, we proclaim you, Crown Princess Kaji of the Fire Nation!" the head sage boomed.

"We proclaim you!" the rest of the sages chanted in unison.

The head sage slipped the crown into Kaji's topknot. The nobility clapped politely before coming out of the perimeter of the arena to line the field before the newly acclaimed Crown Princess. Each line presented their family name and what they offered to the nation before giving a deep bow. Kaji returned each bow with a tilt of her head, acknowledging their rank as high nobles and yet as lesser beings than herself. When all of the nobles had presented themselves Tenzin help Korra amble up the steps to face Kaji.

Tenzin tilted his head, "I hope your reign is prosperous and full of peace." His veiled message was not lost on her.

"I thank you for your faith," Kaji replied in a level voice, returning his nod with one of her own.

"…" Korra suddenly froze. Being so close to the mysterious new girl was extremely intimidating. "I-"

"What's wrong Avatar, catfish got your tongue," the whispered snide remark rolled off the girl's tongue in perfectly punctuated syllables. Korra blinked before turning quite red on her cheeks.

"I wish you luck Crown Princess Kaji," she managed to utter.

Kaji bowed formally, bending even her waist. Korra was about to return it in kind but felt a cool hand against her shoulder. Kaji was keeping her upright. "No need for you to bow to someone as lowly as I, Avatar."

With that the procession had come to a close. All of the bystanders flooded out of the Agni Kai arena and back to their respective homes. The gossip was already spreading like wildfire and would soon reach the rest of the city. Tales of the mysterious, fierce-eyed girl who had taken the crown from the prince would be the topic on everyone's mind. Kaji was taken into the main building of the palace to fill out the official paperwork that came with her newly acquired position and, later, to meet with the Fire Lord and discuss her official duties as his heir. Tenzin assisted Korra into hobbling over to the nearest fountain where she healed her twisted ankle. They then located their guide, Panties-in-a-Bunch, and were promptly escorted to their guest quarters. Korra hadn't even noticed that the sun was setting until she flopped onto her bed and fell asleep staring out her window and remembering two glinting golden eyes.

**P.S. Please review. Chapter 3 is done but in need of revision and chapter 4 is on the way. Reviews make me right faster.**


	3. Fire Flakes and Blue Flames

**A/N: Sorry it took this long. I am so behind on this story. But in my defense, I had two essays to write, a Spanish test que no me gusta, these chapters are about 3,000 words longer than the averages on my previous stories, and I started working out on the Insanity program with my dad which seeps the miniscule amount of energy I had. That and I didn't get as many reviews as I wanted. Now enough of my excuses. Special thanks to ContractKillerNO1. I feel like I'm writing this only for you. Please review and make a highschool student with no life a tad bit happier. :)**

**Disclaimer: If only I owned Avatar: Legend of Korra. That would make me the happiest peron in the world. Unfortunately, my life is too mundane for that.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Iroh gasped for air. His whole body felt as though it was on fire and not in a good way. His lungs filled to their capacity and still came up short. His arms could barely keep in front of him. Taking one last steadying breath, he centered his emotions. His arms began the sweeping motions that would channel the electric current through his body. With another twist he sunk his hands into his side, gathering the static energy from his stomach into his finger tips. With a mighty roar he struck his connected index and middle fingers forward and released a streak of livid white lightening.

Kaji's wrists flicked in two small arcs, sweeping in harmony with her hips. Once she felt the familiar power fill her center, she extended her connected middle and index fingers. With an explosive crackle, scorching purple lightening jettisoned forward to meet Iroh's own white electricity. The two arcs met in the center of the arena with such an explosive contusion, as cannot have been described.

"I have won," Kaji stated simply.

"We proclaim you, Crown Princess Kaji of the Fire Nation!" the head sage boomed.

"We proclaim you!" the rest of the sages chanted in unison.

"I wish you luck Crown Princess Kaji," Korra managed to utter.

Korra hadn't even noticed that the sun was setting until she flopped onto her bed and fell asleep staring out her window and remembering two glinting golden eyes.

It had been approximately six hours of sleep that Korra had gotten that night. Six beautiful hours that were weaved in sweet dreams that were hidden just past a veil of fogginess. Korra wished she could remember them. Usually her only good dreams were ones of memories with Mako, Bolin, and Asami. Mostly though, they were memories of Mako.

Unfortunately, she had all of ten seconds to be wistful before the cause of her rude awakening was uncovered. She was, in fact, lying on the floor in a pile of her covers, having been pushed off of her bed by a particular young airbender girl now snoring fitfully. Jinora had apparently snuck into Korra's room at some point and decided to take up residence beside her. Jinora was also known for not being very good at sharing a bed. Her little arms and legs were splayed and she resembled a rather large orange starfish. Korra blew a stray strand of hair out of her face in a huff of annoyance. She had really rather hoped to sleep in after the trying previous day.

A loud bang caused her to jump out of her covers, or rather try to jump out of her covers, as her arms were rather tangled in the light fabric and only one leg was free. In the end, through a torrent of muffled curses directed at all things sheet related, Korra was able to get to her feet. The loud bang, she soon discovered, had been Meelo banging open her door.

"BREAKFAST!" he screamed. Korra had to stick a finger in her ear to make sure that her eardrum hadn't popped from the disagreeable sound. Jinora, on the other hand, simply shifted onto her stomach and dug her head under the remaining pillow.

"Jinora, wake up!" Meelo formed an air scooter under him and started riding it along the walls and ceiling before mowing over his sister. The poor girl had no time to react and was sent hurtling into one of the walls. The thud was followed by a sleepy grunt.

"Meelo, what did we tell you about propelling family members into walls?" Korra chided. It was disconcerting to think that it was a repeat offense for the overly hyper child.

"Not to do it," he said in a monotone. His face broke into a toothy grin. "Come on Korra. The food here's REALLY weird looking. Mom says to try it though."

With that, the ball of airbending energy blasted off down the hall. Korra checked to see if the room's other occupant was alright. Jinora had tucked herself into a comfortable ball on the floor and resumed her snoozing. She would surely be sore later, but for the time being Korra was satisfied in leaving the girl alone.

At first, she was afraid that she would lose herself in the maze of corridors that made up the Royal Palace. However, she realized that following the loud bangs and yelling coming from ahead of her provided the perfect guide. All along the way, Korra passed disgruntled servants and guests, all seeming to have become acquainted with Tenzin's eldest son. One woman's long hair had been fully wrapped around her face and neck. She and a young man, perhaps her husband or brother, were trying to disentangle her much to Korra's amusement.

Korra had reached her destination, marked by a very familiar deep voice scolding the young boy behind two grand doors. Surely enough, as soon as Korra opened the door, she was greeted by Pema's warm smile and Tenzin's furrowed brow. He seemed to relax when he saw her. Her own face was placid, though she made her best effort to look perkier. A long day and short night paired with her overall disjointedness was not a great combination.

The room itself was very light, a large window pouring the sun's faint rays in. As was the pattern in all of the rooms, large columns reached like great fingers to cup the ceiling. The floor was made of perfect white marble. Light beige curtains hung on either side of Korra and the door she had come from. It was a welcome changed to the ever present red, black, and gold theme. Four small stairways composed of four steps led to a table in a small compression of the floor. The table was laden with colorful foods. A bowl holding some kind of red flakes was placed in the center, the rest of the plates arranged around it. The rice had small trails of steam still rising from it.

"I believe waiting for Jinora and Ikki would simply be a waste of the good food," Tenzin sighed. Pema nodded and brought a forlorn looking Meelo to his seat. Korra sat across from him. Tenzin and Pema took spots next to each other. Two chairs remained empty for the girls.

Korra stacked her plate with the various options of cuisine. She wasn't particularly interested in what they tasted like, but she also didn't want to appear rude by refusing to eat it. She filled her spoon with a large portion of the red flakes. Slightly shrugging her shoulders, she placed the spoonful into her mouth. The event that followed, Korra ensured, was to be covered up considerably in the retelling of their trip upon their return to Republic City. Tenzin watched in horror as Korra's face lit up an unhealthy neon red. The heat radiating off of her was tangible. Meelo let out a peel of laughter at the poor girl's inflated cheeks. Pema tried to place a hand on Korra's back but had to instantly retract it as actual flames shot from her ears.

"H-hot," was all she managed to choke out before flinging herself from the chair and running out of the room.

Korra ran along the corridors, not quite sure of where she was headed. She just hoped that she could find some kind of vase or something that would be a canister of water. The corridors were full of ornate pottery and metal working, but nothing that could be deemed useful for her present dilemma. She felt a surge of heat and acid rise up from her burning stomach and knew that she had to get outside before she burned the whole place down. She flung open the first large and ornate doors that she could find. Unfortunately, they did not lead to the outside directly. She found herself bursting into the throne room, full of its many columns, polished floors, and two very bewildered Fire nation royals. Korra simply didn't have time to think about Inzei and Kaji's confused expressions. Minor flames were already slipping from her mouth. She turned her head toward the windows. A small pond under a willow tree was just beyond the clear glass. Not waiting any longer, Korra ran toward her escape route. Before colliding with the glass, she shot a block of stone through the window and made her way through the hole.

The ground rose up to meet her. Korra swiftly blew a current of air, and quite a large amount of fire, from her mouth and used the momentum to flip herself over midair and land with a splash among the startled turtleducks that were swimming around. Once underwater, Korra released all of the pent up heat in a massive belch of fire. Her head broke the surface of the pond to see the poor little animals flapping to the safety of their small house. The boiling water was burning their small feet. Though it wasn't as refreshing as it would have been cool, the water was welcome sliding down Korra's scorched throat.

A burst of wild laughter sounded from one of the higher stories. Korra spun around to find Kaji hunched over, her body shaking in spasms of laughter. Inzei was behind her, his usual stoic expression chipping slightly from his own amusement. Kaji wiped a stray tear from her eyes and tried to regain her composer. Apparently, seeing Korra soaked and still red in the face was too much and she fell into hysterical giggles once more.

_That's it,_ Korra fumed in her head, _I hate that girl._

Kaji and Inzei exchanged a few words before he inclined his head toward Korra and nodded. Kaji then turned her attention back to the miserable, and thoroughly embarrassed, Avatar. She too jumped out of the broken window, emulating Korra's propulsion and flip perfectly, punctuated by her own signature blue fire. However, Kaji slightly overshot her leap and landed squarely on the edge of the pond. Her smirk was so wide it looked like it would split her face in half.

"Would you like some assistance?" Kaji offered her hand to Korra. The turtleducks were now curiously peering at the newcomer and their previous assailant.

"No, I meant to do this," Korra slapped the hand away and pushed herself up. Kaji didn't seem to be bothered by her hostility.

"What was that about?" the crown princess inquired innocently.

"I think someone is trying to assassinate me," Korra said seriously. The comment only seemed to make increase the other girl's glee. "I'm serious. If I hadn't been the Avatar, those red flakes could have made me spontaneously combust!"

"Red flakes?" Kaji's brows rose slightly. "As in fire flakes?"

"Whatever, they were in a large bowl in the middle of the breakfast table. I took a spoonful and it felt as though a dragon erupted from my stomach."

Kaji couldn't hold it in anymore. She let out another peel of laughter. Korra simply glared, dripping and frustrated. Seeing that the other girl was nowhere close to finishing her fun at Korra's expense, Korra decided to be productive and bend the water out of her clothing.

"You-ha-you're not supposed to eat a whole spoonful of fire flakes. Haha. You need to build up a resistance to them. If that was your first time eating them, you should have taken one or two. A spoonful, even I can't eat all of that in one go. You truly are impressive, Avatar," Kaji said, leaning against the stooping tree trunk and holding her sides.

"Oh," Korra couldn't get anything else out. She wasn't quite sure whether to take the last comment as an insult or a compliment. Instead, Korra decided to glare at the smug look Kaji wore. It hadn't been her fault that no one had warmed her of the effects of the stupid hell flakes. "Right, well… umm… I guess I'll be going back to Tenzin then. Sorry about the window."

"Don't worry about it. The glass worker will fix it in no time," Kaji waved off Korra's apology.

Korra turned to go then stopped. Her surroundings were completely unfamiliar. The corridors and multiple doors could have led anywhere. She hadn't taken stock of where she had been going in her mad dash to evacuate the palace. Squaring her shoulders, Korra decided to take her chances with the palace. Anything was better than having to ask for help from the irritating firebender behind her.

"Do you need help finding your quarters?"Korra gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"No," she bit out.

"Well, I have to talk to Tenzin on behalf of the Fire Lord anyway. I'll simply be following you."

Korra wanted to face-palm herself. She wanted to smack Kaji or push her in the pond. She wanted to crawl into her bed and get a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep and forget the morning's mishaps. Unfortunately, none of those things were going to happen. Instead, Korra chose to go to her right and entered a random door lining the building ahead of her. She figured that the palace couldn't have been that big and she would find her way eventually. Hopefully Kaji would get tired of her and leave.

"The rooms are actually in the opposite direction," Kaji commented.

"I-I knew that," Korra stuttered, pouring as much confidence in her words as she could. "I was taking the scenic route."

It was perhaps the stupidest thing she had ever said in her life. However Kaji only gave a quick "Alright." and they continued on Korra's random journey.

It had been hours. Or at least it felt that way. Korra was tired and achy from her plummet to the pond. Her stomach was now beyond the point of numbness, and had reached the part where it was rumbling in discontent. With each rumble, a throb of pain ran up to Korra's throat. Even more annoying than the obvious fact that she was lost, was the fact that Kaji was still following her like some loyal puppy.

Korra's temples throbbed and her eye started to twitch. She stopped so suddenly that Kaji almost ran into her back. Her shoulders were rigid and shaking with anger. In the end she just couldn't hold it in any longer. "Alright, I am lost! Now would you please stop following me and go on your way? I will eventually find the guest quarters but I don't need the constant pressure! I don't want to be stuck wandering the corridors of this palace, but the only thing that I want to do less than that is traverse them with YOU!"

Her blue eyes flicked to the girl behind her. Black bangs hung over Kaji's face. The golden eyes were hidden by the shadows the sleek strands created. "If you would like me to show you the way, you need only ask," Kaji's voice was biting yet there was something underneath her sharp words, something almost… sad?

"I-" Korra didn't know what to say. Her stomach twisted, and not from the pain caused by the fire flakes. She felt like a real ass. Kaji hadn't exactly been the epitome of sympathy, but she wasn't deserving of Korra's anger. "I'm sorry."

Kaji's head snapped up, a smug smirk playing on her lips. Korra's heart dropped into her discontented stomach. The girl had simply been putting on an act. Feigning mock excitement Kaji answered Korra's apology in a sickly fake sweet voice. "It's quite alright. I wasn't offended."

Kaji took the lead and, after a series of turns and ornate rooms- none of which Korra would have thought to go through- they came upon the rooms designated for Tenzin, his family, and Korra. Korra spent the entire time staring daggers in between Kaji's shoulder blades.

"Thank you," Korra mumbled. The words came out a snarl, but she wasn't one to be called rude. She would leave that to the infuriating girl next to her.

"Not a problem," Kaji replied. "I must go to Master Tenzin now. I hope that you feel better. You can probably heal yourself, but in case you have any lingering aches, ask a servant for some cucumber or watermelon. They will soothe you."

With that, she turned and walked around a corner. Korra hadn't really taken the time to notice her clothing until then. The rich burgundy color blended with the walls, and yet, it had a certain perfection in the way it clung to the girl's curves. The robe accentuated the hidden strength and feminine softness that seemed to be in harmony along Kaji's skin. Kaji's suddenly sincere advice put her off guard. Her body was another distraction altogether. She caught herself staring and quickly retracted her head into her room.

Korra made it a point to ask one of the passing servants for the items Kaji had recommended. The cucumber was a familiar plant to Korra and, as Kaji said, it worked miracles. The watermelon was something new entirely. Korra spent most of her afternoon gazing out of her window and placing the delicate pink cubes in her mouth.

The evening came with a welcoming cool breeze. Korra had to eventually leave her spot on the terrace in search of a more comfortable place to relax. A plush armchair was a welcome reprieve for her legs. She hated the dusk. It reminded her of a pair of bronze eyes that she longed for. Closing her eyes didn't help to keep the images from running through her mind. In fact, the black background of her eyelids only accentuated Mako's fair skin, his piercing warm gaze. She had once wished for the looks he gave to Asami to be directed toward her. Now, it was simply one of the whims she had learned to ignore. He was with the green-eyed beauty and, surely, no one would give up someone like Asami to be with someone like herself.

Korra sighed as her eyes started to sting. She decided that sitting wasn't a good idea after all. Getting up by swinging her legs against the chair and pushing her upper body forward with her arms, Korra reached for her door. She saw a servant passing. _Seriously, do these people ever get a day off?_ She flagged the man down and asked him for the nearest path to a park or open area. He dropped whatever it was that he had been doing and escorted her. His eyes flicked nervously from where he was going to her face. Korra focused on the golden beams tracing the hallways they passed.

"Here you are Avatar Korra. It is a training ground but it is very spacious and has a small glade of cypress along a pond if you continue forward. The area itself is deserted at this hour, but you will be able to find servants in any of the adjoining rooms whenever you would like to return to your quarters."

"Thank you," Korra said. The servant bowed and scurried off to complete whatever chores he had left.

The sun had finally set. The western sky was still somewhat light, but soon Korra's vision of the sky was blocked by the massive trunks and spiraling needles of the cypress trees. The servant's directions proved to be true. The pond-which was actually the size of a small lake- was glistening in the faint light of the full moon. The stars above twinkled as though they were precious stones. Korra pulled off her boots and stuck her toes in the water to test it. The day's warmth still permeated the surface so she lazily dipped the rest of her feet in, followed by her legs up to her knees. The small ripples expanded and interwove until they disappeared and the pond stilled once more.

The soothing scenery was calming to Korra's nerves for a few more minutes. Suddenly, the loneliness returned to her with a vengeance. Her tears were inevitable this time. Hot streaks poured down her cheeks and collected under her chin. Small droplets fell upon her clenched hands, fingers entwined in her baggy shirt over her stomach. At first she tried to choke in the sounds, afraid that someone would come looking for the source of the noise. She soon gave up her efforts and let the misery diffuse from her. Her voice broke the stillness, the sobs wracking through her body. All of the feelings of abandonment, by Mako, her parents, her home-whichever one it was now- escaped through the salty bitter tears that flowed and rippled the water without end.

Korra had no way of telling how long she had been there. It could have been hours or seconds. However long it was, she was so enraptured in her sorrow that she barely had any time to dodge the flying fist that almost collided with her face.

"The hell?" her voice was broken and cracked.

"This is a training area," a familiar snide voice said. "And you must have the worst peripheral vision I have ever seen."

Korra gaped at Kaji, now standing in front of her, fist wrapped in blue flames that licked up to her elbow. The girl was wearing an outfit similar to the one she had on when she challenged Iroh, only the sleeves of her dull yellow shirt were longer. All Korra could stammer out was, "Y-you almost hit me."

"Well, it appears that your ability to state the obvious is in perfect condition," Kaji stated before going in for another jab. Korra dodged with room to spare that time.

"What in the names of the spirits are you doing?" Korra almost yelled.

"What does it look like? Now are you going to show me some offensive moves or just wait to get your ass kicked?"

Korra growled. She was not in the mood to be made fun of. She deflected a few more of Kaji's punches before directing a flood of water in the direction of the firebender. Kaji's azure flames quickly evaporated the attack and she followed up with a few fireballs launched toward Korra. Korra bended a wall of earth to deflect the attack. She then opened up a hole under her feet and disappeared. She used her seismic sense to find her target. Kaji gasped in surprise as the earth below her erupted and an enraged Korra flew out below her. Kaji was unable to block Korra's stone covered knuckles from hitting her full force in the chest. The firebender was catapulted a good few yards from the pond. She landed hard on her back and rolled a few times before being stopped by a tree. Kaji had no time to recover. She was unable to regain her breath by the time Korra was on her. The crown princess moved out of the way of the icicle barrage that struck the tree that had been behind her. Through sheer force of will, she ran from the figure moving after her. Korra bended a hole under once more and disappeared from Kaji's line of sight. _Not again Avatar_, Kaji thought before jumping into one of the trees.

Korra had Kaji in her sights until the girl's form suddenly disappeared. At first Korra thought that it was a fluke and redirected her senses to a wider area. Kaji's presence remained as masked as it had been before. She exited her burrow, keeping aware of her surrounding in case of an ambush. The wood had grown quiet, the sudden flurry of movement now turned still.

A flash of blue caught the corner of Korra's eye a second before Kaji burst from one of the cypress trees. Korra blocked with her own orange flames. Both girls were knocked back from the force of their fists meeting. Korra grunted and threw up a pillar of earth. Kaji was not to be caught off guard and used the momentum of the moving earth below her to jump into a back flip and land on her feet. Korra caught her wince and debated whether she should end the fight. The girl had asked for it though and Korra's anger had been sparked. The bitterness and sorrow she had felt before was converted into poor energy. Her fists erupted into flames.

"Come on then," Korra began walking toward Kaji's crouched body. Her heart was hammering in her chest and her chi was burning her veins. "You were the one who wanted a fight."

Korra didn't wait for a reply; she raised her fist and brought it down on Kaji. The princess jumped out of the way and circled the Avatar. Strong arms encircled Korra from under her arms and wrapped behind her neck. Her hands dripped flames and the hem of Kaji's shirt sleeves caught fire. If it hurt, Kaji made no sign. She simply kept the hold. Korra's anger only grew when she realized that she was trapped. Not taking time to think, Korra pressed her legs to the trunk that was closest to her. Kicking out with a burst of flames, she threw herself and Kaji back. The firebender released her hold in order to catch herself. Korra wasn't going to allow the girl to regain her bearings. She made a twist in midair, utilizing her airbending skills, and grabbed Kaji's wrists. Clear golden eyes met furious cerulean ones.

The ground was covered in grass which cushioned Kaji's fall somewhat. The impact was still a shocking one however and she felt her head whiplash as her back hit the earth. Korra's added weight caused them to slide down the slight slope of the glade. Kaji's eyelids had closed to protect her eyes from any loose earth fragments that might have hit her face. Once their velocity had been nullified by the ground's friction, the firebender risked a quick look. Her eyelashes were long enough to cause a dark haze to cover her vision. No pain registered to her eyes, though there was plenty elsewhere. She took that as a good sign and fully opened her eyes. Korra was straddling her, gasping for air. Her light brown hands were iron shackles around Kaji's pale wrists. The contrast between their skin tones was so evident with the proximity of their flesh. Kaji returned her attention to the Avatar's face. Kaji had her own eyes shut tight. Her brow was knit together, lines clearly visible on her dark forehead. Her hair was blowing freely in the wind. She had lost her ponytail at some point during their slide.

"Ava- Korra?" Kaji corrected herself. Titles held no power here. The girl above her was fragile and needed to be reminded that she was a human too.

Kaji's voice was like cold water being splashed in Korra's mind. Her eyes snapped open and her large irises opened her pupils to account for the lack of light. She was looking down into Kaji's face. The girl was giving her a questioning look, as if to ask if she was alright. It was an absurd look. It was quite clear that Korra was anything but alright. She was currently straddling the girl and cutting off the circulation to her hands, while only a few seconds beforehand, they were attacking each other and Korra had barreled her down a hill. Korra knew that she should have let Kaji go, lifted herself up and demanded whether the other girl had some kind of mental disorder for assaulting people out of the blue. Instead, Korra simply tightened her grip and stayed frozen in her position.

Kaji felt Korra's hands tighten. She tried not to let the pain show in her face. She could see the warring emotions in Korra's face. The girl's blue eyes were as wide as a deer-antelope's. Her body began to tremble, her hands now almost as chalk white in the moonlight as Kaji's.

"Do you feel a little better?" Kaji asked hoping her concern didn't show too much. The last thing she wanted was to insult Korra by commenting on her fragile state.

Korra hated to admit it, but she did feel better. Not just a little better, she felt cleansed. The battle was a sort of necessary catharsis that she hadn't even been aware that she needed. The observations of her body position in relation to Kaji's became apparent to her once more, this time with more clarity. She quickly composed her face to its usual stoicism before the color could darken her cheeks.

The indecision disappeared behind a façade of stone. Korra's fingers began to uncurl from Kaji's wrists. The tingling sensation of her blood pouring into her hands was a minor nuisance. She didn't know what was going through her mind but the last thing Kaji wanted was to lose contact with the girl above her. Kaji didn't know what it was about the exotic beauty above her that made her heart hammer as though a war drum. Taking a deep breath, Kaji steeled herself. Her next move could end in extreme pleasure or extreme pain.

Korra had released Kaji's wrists and was now using her free hands to push herself off of the princess. She wasn't looking at Kaji's face, opting to find a very interesting blade of grass off to the side of the other girl's face instead. She didn't even feel Kaji move until she felt a warm hand against her left cheek. Her eyes flashed back to the girl under her a second before Kaji's full lips crashed into hers. At first Korra wanted to push her off and set her on fire or incase her in stone. However, the soft velvety feel of the soft lips against her own and the warmth that permeated from Kaji's body into her own from the contact soon turned all of Korra's thoughts to incoherent jumbles.

Kaji felt a surge of confidence at still being alive and connected to Korra. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and then pushed off with her hands behind her back. Korra's own hands moved back a little so that Kaji had space to sit up. The kiss was still innocent, only a slight pressure on each other's lips. Kaji burned for more, to taste the dark exotic beauty that was Avatar Korra, no, just Korra herself was enchanting enough. It had nothing to do with their titles. The girl simply radiated with power and passion.

When Kaji finally ran out of breath she broke the contact. Korra couldn't help but let a small whine escape from her throat at the sudden rush of cold air. It was then that Korra noticed that she was completely out of breath as well. The first gulp of air was almost painful. The second was cooling. The third was leveling. Kaji herself was also calming her frantic gasps. Korra looked down so as not to meet the fiery gaze that was surely being directed at her. Kaji's back stiffened at Korra's lowered head and hidden expression. She wasn't quite sure what to say at that point. She sure as hell wasn't apologizing, but she didn't want Korra to feel resentment against her.

"Korra I-" she began but was stopped when Korra snake the fingers of her left hand into Kaji's right. Kaji gave her a reassuring squeeze to console her. The Avatar's light pressure on her legs shifted closer to her. Caged sobs escaped Korra's clenched teeth and she soon found herself grabbing Kaji's shirt and pulling her into another kiss, this one urgent and searing. It was almost like her first with Mako, only Kaji didn't pull away. Kaji returned it with all of the force that Korra was putting into it.

It was Korra who broke the kiss that time. She gave up on holding in the tears and opted to bury her head into Kaji's shoulders and let all of her emotions escape. Kaji simply encircled her arms protectively around Korra's back. She was taller than the weeping girl and so was able to rest her cheek against Korra's head. She stayed that way until she felt Korra's sobs start to quiet and her deep gasps stilled to a more even breath.

Korra's head shifted away from the crook of Kaji's collarbone and neck. Her mind was reeling. The last few minutes were unexplainable. She was stunned into silence, unsure whether to run or to bury herself into the girl who was kneeling beside her. A small pressure on her arm made her eyes flick to where Kaji's delicate hand was resting. Korra couldn't explain why she shrugged it off. Maybe it was the fear of connecting with someone romantically again. Perhaps it was the fact that she shouldn't have felt any feelings toward the girl at all. Korra didn't have any analysis. The olny thing she knew was that she couldn't look into the golden eyes, no doubt brimmed with a hidden confusion or pain at her iciness.

"I can't do this," Korra whispered. Then louder, "This is wrong."

She was almost hesitant about seeing Kaji's reaction to her words. What Korra did see when she lifted her head nearly broke her heart again. Kaji was effectively looking at where her long fingers wove in and out of the blades of grass. Giving a nonchalant shrug, the fire prodigy simply nodded. Her face was a blank mask of porcelain until it broke into a wicked grin. A grin that, suspiciously, did not reach Kaji's previously molten eyes, now dulled bronze.

"As long as you feel better. The air around you was thick with depression and self pity before I got here. It was ruining my evening stroll."

Korra's face brightened in anger. She had _ruined Kaji's evening_! The girl had just kissed her and then acted as though it meant nothing. As though Korra meant nothing! "Well, excuse me for having problems. Speaking of which, what's yours? You just happen to walk by and decide to throw a fire ball at me! Then you go and kiss me. And to top it all, you act like I inconvenienced you!" Korra was practically yelling at that point.

"Well, at least you don't look like you're about to slit your wrists anymore," Kaji motioned against her own for emphasis before pushing herself up off the ground.

"That's because I want to wring your neck with them and the hands connected to them!"

"Whatever."

Korra was seething. She hadn't seen that much red since leaving the palace halls. This hue had nothing to do with the brilliant crimson paint that the building was themed on. Korra had to mentally make sure that steam wasn't spilling from her ears.

"Do you need an escort to your room?" Kaji asked. Her face was covered by the shadows of her bangs again. Korra had a strong urge to cut them with a blade of water. Kaji's right hand was stretched down, offering Korra help up.

Korra slapped it away but muttered, "Yeah."

The way back was submerged in an awkward silence. The tension could be cut by an ice dagger, which was exactly what Korra was mentally throwing at the back of her companion. When they finally reached Korra's door, she didn't so much as look at Kaji, opting to simply push her way through the door and attempt to slam it into Kaji's face. The only reason she wasn't successful was because of a firm, velvety grip around her left wrist. Korra whipped her head around, about to verbally blast the other girl through the adjacent wall. However, Kaji's expression stopped her dead in her tracks, mouth half open with unuttered words.

"I apologize for tonight Avatar Korra. Forget about it if you will… I am glad that you are feeling better. Before I leave, you should know something. You are deserving of the most love in this world. If you forget everything else, don't forget that," with that, Kaji turned and made her way down the candlelit corridor. Korra debated going after the girl and asking her what she meant. Those eyes, full of regret and loss, were haunting images of her own. It was as though Kaji had taken Korra's sadness into herself. But, the Fire Princess was already gone and Korra was not about to get lost searching. She would see Kaji again, it was inevitable.

**P.S. I am sorry for any errors. I reread this thing five minutes before I copy/pasted it onto fanfiction and it's late so my brain is only half on right now. Hope you enjoy and I will attempt to get chapter 4 up soon. REVIEW! Please.**


	4. The Closet Part 1

**A/N: This chapter gave me so much freaking trouble. I rewrote it twice. The original was Kaji pushing Korra into the supply closet but I didn't really like the way I was going with it so I switched roles. Then my writer's block was active for about two full days. This chapter is Part 1 for a reason and I will upload Part 2 later on today when I'm done writing it. Enjoy and please review. They make me happy. :)**

**Disclaimer: One day, when I am rich and powerful and ruler of the world, I will own Avatar. Until that day, I own nothing but a computer, a keyboard, and ideas. I don't even own the time it takes to write them down.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Korra gaped at Kaji, now standing in front of her, fist wrapped in blue flames that licked up to her elbow. The girl was wearing an outfit similar to the one she had on when she challenged Iroh, only the sleeves of her dull yellow shirt were longer. All Korra could stammer out was, "Y-you almost hit me."

"Well, it appears that your ability to state the obvious is in perfect condition," Kaji stated before going in for a fiery jab.

Korra didn't wait for a reply; she raised her fist and brought it down on Kaji. The princess jumped out of the way and circled the Avatar. Strong arms encircled Korra from under her arms and wrapped behind her neck. Korra's anger only grew when she realized that she was trapped. Not taking time to think, Korra pressed her legs to the trunk that was closest to her. Kicking out with a burst of flames, she threw herself and Kaji back. The firebender released her hold in order to catch herself. Korra wasn't going to allow the girl to regain her bearings. She made a twist in midair, utilizing her airbending skills, and grabbed Kaji's wrists.

The ground was covered in grass which cushioned Kaji's fall somewhat. The impact was still a shocking one however and she felt her head whiplash as her back hit the earth. Korra's added weight caused them to slide down the slight slope of the glade.

Korra was straddling her, gasping for air. Her light brown hands were iron shackles around Kaji's pale wrists.

"Do you feel a little better?" Kaji asked hoping her concern didn't show too much. The last thing she wanted was to insult Korra by commenting on her fragile state.

Korra's fingers began to uncurl from Kaji's wrists. She wasn't looking at Kaji's face, opting to find a very interesting blade of grass off to the side of the other girl's face instead. She didn't even feel Kaji move until she felt a warm hand against her left cheek. Her eyes flashed back to the girl under her a second before Kaji's full lips crashed into hers.

"I can't do this," Korra whispered. Then louder, "This is wrong."

"I apologize for tonight Avatar Korra. Forget about it if you will… I am glad that you are feeling better. Before I leave, you should know something. You are deserving of the most love in this world. If you forget everything else, don't forget that," with that, Kaji turned and made her way down the candlelit corridor. Korra debated going after the girl and asking her what she meant. Those eyes, full of regret and loss, were haunting images of her own. It was as though Kaji had taken Korra's sadness into herself. But, the Fire Princess was already gone and Korra was not about to get lost searching. She would see Kaji again, it was inevitable.

Korra woke up feeling light. She hadn't noticed it the night previous, but the fight had done her good. It was an emotional reprieve she hadn't been aware she needed. Her good mood lasted long enough to run into recalling Kaji's final goodbye. A strange feeling of guilt overwhelmed Korra. It was unprecedented, but then again, so was the whole situation. Kaji's words made no sense, and yet, it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever told her. _No! What are these thoughts?_ Fear replaced guilt and she was desperately aware that she might start trembling. It was a strange emotion, as though she was doing something wrong by enjoying Kaji's presence, her touch. It was as though she was betraying Mako. _That's stupid,_ she chided herself. _He's not even with you. He's with Asami  
somewhere out there. HE left YOU._ But, it wasn't just Mako. It was like betraying her first love, the raw emotion itself, by giving up on it for this other person. Korra knew she had to somehow resolve the warring emotions inside of her. She hadn't even been aware that she liked girls until last night.

Korra wasn't sure how she wanted to breach the subject of the few moments of passion she had shared with the firebender. Still, she knew that she had to ask Kaji about it. The girl was infuriating and yet, Korra wanted more._ Now that I'm being honest with myself, I haven't felt that wanted since… well ever._ Inner monologue done, Korra decided to go for breakfast. She had somewhat of a virtual map of the building that housed her and the Airbender family by now.

The twists and turns were somewhat more confusing than Korra had initially anticipated. She was only saved by the ornate vases whose pattern, she somehow remembered. Jasmines flowers, then cherry blossom, then dancing dragons in golden sky, and turn right to get to the dining area. The doors were right where she had expected. Perfect.

Tenzin and Pema had apparently started eating in the small time when they weren't busy corralling their children. They turned at her entrance and looked at her as though she had grown wings and a tail. Looking down at her attire, Korra realized that she hadn't changed since the previous day. Her pants had giant tears in them from her fight, her shirt was muddy to the point that the previous color had been all but lost, and she had the hair of a yeti.

"Rough night?" Tenzin asked, his hidden connotation lost on him, but clear as day to Korra.

Korra opened her mouth, but before she could get a syllable out Meelo burst in through a side door followed by a very angry looking Jinora. The wild boy jumped over the table by the force of one of his infamous farts and landed on an air scooter. Jinora was not far behind, though she politely used the air of the room instead of flatulence to propel herself over the table.

"Children, behave!" Pema shouted after them as they made their exit. A multitude of crashes were audible for a few minutes before order ensued in their section of the palace. Pema let out a forlorn sigh. "I blame you, you know."

Tenzin tried to come up with a substantial defense, but came up short. He was the airbender after all. Instead he decided to divert the conversation to Korra once more. "Well?"

"I have no explanation for the state of my appearance this morning," Korra hung her head and sauntered to the chair furthest from the fire flakes. It was a bit difficult with their central position, but she settled for the head of the table not occupied. "I just need to think about a few things and try not to incur the wrath of anyone with influence."

Pema and Tenzin exchanged worried glances. They tried to be discreet, but Korra knew them so well that she didn't even have to look to see it in her mind's eye.

"Would you like to try some of the fruit?" Pema asked offering a dish. "They are quite exotic and delectable. This one is called a dragonfruit."

Korra, having become wary of any and all Fire Nation dishes, looked at the pink fruit with green scales and a pale interior full of navy beads. She took a furtive scoop with a special spoon outfitted with tiny teeth on the sides. She tentatively took the small clump into her mouth and braced herself for the inevitable burn. Instead, her mouth was filled with a mild coolness and subtle sweetness. She licked her lips to take in the stray juice. The second spoonful was larger in quantity. It too did not burn her and she became braver. Pema and Tenzin couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's antics.

"What about this one?" Pema asked holding up a plate of small red fruit. They were also scaly like the dragon fruit, but were a uniform magenta color. Korra picked one up and took an experimental bite. The peel cracked under her teeth and a slightly tangy taste pricked her tongue before being soothed by a sugary syrup.

"Don't eat the peel," Tenzin added.

The fruit inside was a pale white with a slightly pink bottom. The seed within was a deep mahogany and was discarded. Korra attacked the rest until there was no more. She gave a warm smile to the room's other occupants. Tenzin's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. He hadn't seen Korra in such a good mood since her victory against the Equalists. Pema didn't question the girl's light aura, content with being happy for her.

Now fully satisfied with her meal, Korra decided to hunt for a certain psychotic firebender. She didn't want to admit it, but another kiss wouldn't be quite unwelcome. She wasn't sure if she wanted to let Kaji in. Her previous experience had been less than forthcoming, not to mention the feelings it had inspired still lingered in the back of her mind. Still, something casual; feeling wanted. There was nothing bad about that. Kaji had seemed very casual about it the past night anyway.

"I'll see you guys later," Korra waved, and then doubled back. "Do you happen to know where I can find Princess Kaji? I, uh, forgot to ask if she wanted help fixing the window I jumped out of."

Pema gave Tenzin a look. Korra concluded that he had failed to mention her little escapade in and out of the throne room. Tenzin chose to ignore it at his own peril, replying, "I believe she is in the Royal Wing. She will be attending a meeting in an hour or so. That's taking place in the 'war room' next to the throne room."

"Thanks Tenzin," Korra beamed before scampering off to put on something more suitable for a walk in the palace. They had no way to deny her entrance to the meeting, what with her being the Avatar and all. There, she could cement the details of the, whatever it was, she wanted to have with Kaji. It was the perfect plan.

Perhaps it wasn't the perfect plan. Korra had been admitted, with only a few raised eyebrows at her sudden interest in the politics of the Fire Nation. She was wearing one of the fine blue satin dresses that Pema had given her. The hem reached the floor, constricting movement somewhat. At least her arms were free along with most of her upper back, excluding the strap that ran down from the collar to connect to the material covering Korra's lower back. The tight collar induced a bit of claustrophobia, but it was worth the lingering eyes of someone in particular among the crowd. Kaji had indeed been present, though she sat at the far end of the council table and rarely took part in the conversations. She also wore the traditional garb of the Fire Nation. Her hair was pulled into a topknot with the golden crown pin stuck firmly in place. Her dress was a block red, with a plain gold lacing.

For the most part, the meeting itself was all boring jargon. Nobles notifying the Fire Lord of issues they had with something or another. Requests for more land or loans were made. Compromises were drawn up. Random deals were made. Even Inzei seemed to be relieved when the clock struck the third hour and the meeting was dismissed.

Korra's eyes lightened up. Her chance had finally come. She stood and moved toward Kaji's retreating form… only to be cut off by a rather plump little man wearing a fine golden robe encrusted with mother of pearl. He came up to Korra's chest and he looked as though he had just run a mile though they had been sitting. The puffy red cheeks expanded with each laborious breath he took.

"Avatar Korra, it is quite the pleasure to meet you," he said. His voice was awfully nasal.

"Yes, a pleasure," Korra looked over the man, trying to find Kaji. The girl was gone. There was no sign of her amongst the milling noblemen drinking and socializing. Korra cursed herself and the tub of lard in her way.

"I don't know if you know me," the fat man continued. "I am Count Fuwa, I am the main supplier of metals to the Fire Nation and some Earth Kingdom cities. The one where you are from, Republic City I believe it is, is one of them-"

He talked nonstop for the good part of twenty minutes before Korra was able to politely untangle herself from his banter and leave. _Well, Plan A failed, _Korra's mind raced, _I need to find out Kaji's schedule and try to get her to talk to me._ Korra wasn't stupid, and she knew when she was being avoided. Kaji could have stayed in the room, even approached Korra, but she hadn't. Walking down random hallways, Korra began to formulate a course of action.

In the end, Korra had no other choice. Kaji had effectively fallen from the face of the Earth and Korra had no knowledge of where anything was in that place. Grabbing the next servant that walked by her, she pulled him into the nearest room she could find. Said room was actually some sort of supply closet. A coil of rope took up most of the center of the room, making it a little difficult to stand without getting tangled. Buckets and mops were stacked to the right of the door. Cleaning supplies and rags were neatly piled onto shelves to the left. Piping ran up into the ceiling, little knobs releasing steam to relieve some of the pressure dotted the cylinders. The hissing of the vaporized water was quite loud. Other random pieces of equipment such as wrenches, screwdrivers, nuts, and bolts also had their places along shelves running along the walls. It was not spacious, but Korra could easily have lain down, stretched her arms and legs and been barely able to touch one end of the room to the other. A fluorescent red bulb bathed the room in a notorious cardinal. Korra shoved the boy into a free wall, making sure he was unable to move.

The poor servant's face would have been a white sheet had the light not cast it red. His small hat indicated that he was a kitchen server. "M-may I help you with something ma'am?"

He had obviously not recognized Korra, or else he would have used her title. "Yes, in fact you can," Korra smiled wickedly. "Do you serve the royal family their meals?"

"Y-yes ma'am," the poor boy was visibly shaking now.

"Then you must know their schedules, so that you can serve them when they are free from any distractions," Korra pressed.

"Yes ma'am?" the tone was one of confusion. Korra couldn't blame him. She had only half planned out her next moves. Step one: find out Kaji's location throughout the day. Step two: talk to her somehow.

"Well, tell me Princess Kaji's and I may consider letting you out of here unscathed," she hated threatening the poor guy, but she had no way to make him talk really. Asking politely would bring on questions.

"Umm, sh-she's not someone I serve. S-since she's n-new around here."

Korra smacked her head against a mental wall. Of course only a few of the staff would be at Kaji's beck and call at that moment. She had only been there for two days._ Two days,_  
Korra mused, _feelings can't develop that fast can they?_ She let the servant slip from her fingers.

The sound of falling metal hitting the floor and scattering accompanied the boy's attempt at secretly moving toward the door. Korra lifted an eyebrow at his lack of stealth. Really, it wasn't like she was going to eat him or anything. Seeing that he wasn't about to meet an early demise, the servant grew bolder and reached for the handle. He jiggled it a few times before giving up on his approach and rummaging in his pant pockets. Korra's other eyebrow lifted as she connected the dots. She couldn't believe her luck.

"This closet locks from the outside?" she asked. The boy practically dropped the keys as he jumped from the sound of her voice.

"Y-yeah, only the servants carry the keys for it."

Korra's smile returned in full force. "On second thought," she stated grabbing the servant's collar and yanking him away, key stuck into the small keyhole under the plain bronze knob. "You can go find Kaji for me. Tell her that Fire Lord Inzei or someone important wants to see her and direct her over here. Which rooms are located here that would sound convincing?"

"Well- there is the study… and that one council room around the corner-" the boy cut off. "Why do you want to see Princess Kaji?"

"'Cause I'm the Avatar and it isn't your place to question my motives," Korra snarled. She really hated being such a bitch about her title. Still, it came in handy. She let him go with a shove.

"O-oh, Avatar Korra! My sincerest apologies!" he turned the key and let them out of the supply closet. "I shall get her right away!"

"Leave the key to this place," Korra added as a last minute precaution. She was sure that her metalbending would be able to handle the knob, were she to get stuck, but she didn't want to be yet again responsible for property damage.

"Yes, Avatar Korra," a curt bow before the boy flew off in search of one Fire Nation Princess.

Korra gave a content sigh and leaned against the hallway wall. She actually hadn't noticed, but a small alcove was conveniently placed before the closet door. It would be a perfect hiding place to jump the Princess and drag her into the supply closet. Then she'd… she'd explain that she didn't mind the intimacy, without the emotions. Kaji seemed to be craving the same thing. Korra just hoped that she could keep herself from developing any feelings. The keys jingled as she moved into the shadows.

Her timing was impeccable. Just as she had fully submerged herself into the dark wall, hurried footsteps came from the direction of the servant's flight. Said person trotted into sight and zipped through on his way to a fake location. Silent glides followed him. A formal looking Kaji, still wearing the kimono from the previous meeting, walked purposefully. Her eyes gleamed, a frown firm in her lips and brow. Her back was now to Korra. Her ebony strands of hair streamed down almost brushing her waist. She had apparently let it loose at some point.

Korra saw her chance. The closet door was practically at a ninety degree angle to her target. She used a puff of airbending to propel herself to Kaji's right side, and then rebounded against the adjacent wall into the unwitting girl. Kaji's eyes barely had time to widen, her arm moving up in a half block, before Korra smacked her into the door. The closet swung open, dumping them both on the floor. Korra kicked the door closed, hearing the content click of the lock set in place.

Kaji was being rather docile underneath her. Korra had expected somewhat of a fight, what with her flying body slam. Instead, the girl hadn't moved an inch, buried under coils of rope and a thin layer of dust scraped from the floor in her slide. Korra pushed herself up and turned her companion. Kaji's head had a large red mark on the forehead that looked like it was about to swell. Her body limply fell back without Korra's supporting hands.

"Great," Korra huffed at no one in particular. "I execute the most amazing maneuver of cunning and acrobatics, and she gets knocked unconscious."

Sighing, Korra settled down in a meditation pose, ready to wait for her victim to wake up. Silently, she was happy for the opportunity to go over what she was going to say.

It really didn't take Kaji that long to regain consciousness, but to Korra, who was stuck sitting in a closet with nothing to do, it felt like it had been hours. The girl's groan was almost musical. Before Korra could even think about her actions, she had pulled Kaji into a hug. Kaji lifted a hand to gently prod her forehead. She grimaced then hung the arm limply at her side.

"So, are you going to explain why I woke up in a service closet?" Kaji asked. Korra finally noticed their proximity and pushed Kaji away. The firebender let out a yelp, but caught herself before smacking her head against the floor again.

"I umm," Korra faltered. "I just wanted to… About last night I… Urgh why is this so difficult?"

She couldn't have seriously run out of words at that moment. After everything! Opting for actions instead, Korra reached for Kaji's hand. The nearest one happening to be propping the girl up, so she practically fell on Korra when it was pulled out from under her. Kaji's head collided with Korra's chin, making both girls wince.

"If you're going to just physically assault me, I would like to leave," the venom in Kaji's tone did not go unnoticed.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Korra hung her head in shame. She mumbled an added, "excessively."

"Really?!" was the sarcastic reply. "Could have fooled me, what with the propulsion into a door!"

"That wasn't," Korra tried, but failed to come up with an argument. "You were avoiding me."

"Honestly, what do you want?" Kaji ignored Korra's remark, "I'm very busy right now. The Fire Lord isn't exactly ecstatic that his son lost the Agni Kai, the nobles are all at my throat trying to appeal to me about something or other, and I still need to win over the populous. I have no time for these games Korra."

"You're the one who started it!" Korra wasn't about to be chided like some little child when it was Kaji who had attacked her out of nowhere and then started a make-out session.

"And you ended it quite effectively. So what is it that you want," the bitter tone hadn't left Kaji, though there was less sting in it.

"I didn't-" Korra was quite certain now that words wouldn't work well in the situation she found herself in. Instead she opted for cupping Kaji's jaw in her hand and pulling her into her lips. To ensure she wouldn't get away, Korra wrapped her arms around the slim shoulders, bare and smooth as the silk of her dress. In the end, it was a null concern. Kaji was more than eager to deepen the kiss, pressing her entire body into it.

Korra nearly pulled away when she felt Kaji's wet tongue trace against her bottom lip. She hadn't kissed someone like that before, at least that she recalled. Kaji was adamant, snaking around Korra's lips until she moaned from the pleasurable pressure. The moan turned into a gasp as Kaji sunk her teeth into Korra's swollen bottom lip. It wasn't a hard bite, just enough. Kaji took advantage of the now parted lips to fully taste Korra's mouth. She was lost in the sweet aftertaste of lychee and dragonfruit among Korra's own flavor. Korra too was lost in the spicy arches of Kaji's tongue. The girl tasted of burning cinnamon. If fire had a taste, that would be it.

They broke apart to take in air. Korra's lungs burned ever so slightly. Whether it was from the flames overtaking her heart or the exhilaration, she did not know. Kaji left no room for recovery. She took Korra's lips once more, caressing them with her spiced tongue, tracing every curve and couture before claiming Korra's mouth again. This time, Korra fought her for dominance. Their tongues swirled around each other as though in a dance, cool against heat. Korra couldn't think. She was drowning in the sea that was Kaji.

"I want to talk," Korra was finally able to mumble against Kaji's lips. Kaji groaned and ignored her, trying to pry open Korra's lips for more. Korra placed a restraining hand on Kaji's shoulder, splaying her fingers so she could feel as much of the warm skin under her fingertips as Kaji's dress allowed. "I want to know what _this _is."

"Whatever you want it to be," Kaji said curtly before pushing into Korra. Talking was the last thing on her mind at the present moment.

"I don't think I can handle anything… substantial… right now," Korra continued. She didn't want to be hurt again. Not like Mako had hurt her. She wanted to feel _wanted,_ but she wasn't willing to give up her heart for that. Kaji lifted her eyes, before half-lidded now open, to meet Korra's sea irises.

"I'll take whatever you're willing to give me. Can't promise you won't want to give it all after a few more days with me though," she winked and smiled. Korra visibly stiffened, then relaxed at the attempt to lighten the mood.

"You are the most stuck-up per-" she began only to be cut off by another kiss.

"You know, doing that won't get you out of trouble with me," Korra said admonishingly. Kaji only smirked and gave Korra one more well meaning peck.

"Alright, I said what I wanted to say, asked all my questions. You want to get out of here and get some lunch?" Korra asked, starting up from her slumped position against the wall. She hadn't even noticed that Kaji had shoved her into it until that moment. Her senses had been occupied elsewhere.

"Sure, it's a date," Kaji beamed. Korra couldn't help the strange warm feeling in her chest from spreading to her face. Perhaps Kaji's earlier jibe hadn't been all talk. Korra quickly kicked the thoughts to the back of her mind. _No attachments Korra, _she reminded herself.

Korra reached for the key, placed earlier into her pocket, only to discover that she, in fact, didn't have any pockets. "Shit," she muttered under her breath before jiggling the handle. She had completely forgotten that she was wearing a dress and not her usual casual outfit. The door was most certainly locked, as proven by jiggling the handle with no budge.

"Guess I'll have to bend it," she informed Kaji over her shoulder. Korra secretly reveled in the opportunity to show off her skills to the prodigy. _Not that I want to impress her or anything, _she quickly added in her head. Both girls stood and Korra positioned herself in front of the door.

Korra reached out with her seismic sense, feeling the door, the room, the metal pipes and tools and shelves. Each had their own pressure points which she could manipulate. She reached for the handle, reaching for the bolt that slid the lock into place. A small bead of sweat streaked down her cheeks, a single drop hit the floor. Korra's hands gripped at the lock, trying in vain to unclick it, to even move it to the left if only slightly. Nothing happened.

Behind her, Korra heard a soft chuckle. Her frustration was evident on her face and she was about to let out a verbal tirade. Kaji beat her to the punch by simply stating, "The entire door, lock included is made of wood. The supply closets were so simple; no metal was wasted in their making. They just painted it to look like bronze."

Korra stared dumbfounded. A wooden lock. Who ever made wooden locks? No one. Locks were never wooden. They just, weren't! She couldn't say anything. The finger she had outstretched to point at Kaji for added effect now hung static in the air. No key, no metalbending, no other option besides breaking the door down. Tenzin would have a freaking field day. Kaji didn't help the matter any. All she did was stand with her arms crossed in front of her chest, waiting for Korra's next move.

"I guess we'll just have to break down the door then," Korra finally concluded.

Kaji looked at her like she had just said something infinitesimally stupid. "If we do that, not only will I have to explain to Inzei what I am doing destroying the palace, but why I was suddenly locked in a closet with you. I'm guessing you don't want to actually explain our little meeting, do you?"

Korra slumped in defeat. She hadn't even thought about the repercussions of being found in the closet with Kaji, in both meanings of the saying. Even thinking about Tenzin's face made her cringe. Instead of dwelling on it she turned to Kaji. "So what do we do then?"

"You're the one who got me into this, figure it out," Kaji replied, unhelpful as always.

"You are useless!" Korra complained, kneading her temples with her palms.

"Well, it's bound to get dark at some point. I can feel when the sun goes down. We'll have a better shot at bursting out unnoticed whilst everyone is sleeping. The guards are pretty lax at night too."

Korra wasn't going to ask how Kaji knew that last tidbit of information. It sounded like a good idea. But, all that waiting was a rather daunting prospect. Korra had no intention of sitting on her butt for hours until evening. "What are we going to do until then? It must be at least eight more hours, and ten if we want to be safe."

"We-ell," Kaji slid closer to Korra, pressing her against the wall again. Korra had noticed before that Kaji was a few inches taller than her. She used that extra height to her advantage, leaning an arm against the wall over Korra's head. Her other hand slid to pull at the collar of Korra's kimono. "I think I have an idea."

**P.S. Well, hope you liked it. I swear things will speed up eventually. I just want to set up a good foundation. Most of the first ten or so chapter I have planned have no real plot other than focusing on Korra's relationship with Kaji. Then come the action parts I'm dying to write. Please review**


	5. The Closet Part 2

**A/N: Hello. I promised the second part to The Closet Part 1 and here it is. Uhh, I wanted this up like four hours ago. Sorry. WARNING! This chapter is why I rated this story M and there is a lemon. I made sure that, if you are not interested in that sort of thing, you can totally skip this chapter. You will miss nothing of consequence. Anyway, for those of you who will read it, please review. Good night, day, or morning, wherever and whenever you are reading this.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Korra saw her chance. The closet door was practically at a ninety degree angle to her target. She used a puff of airbending to propel herself to Kaji's right side, and then rebounded against the adjacent wall into the unwitting girl. Kaji's eyes barely had time to widen, her arm moving up in a half block, before Korra smacked her into the door. The closet swung open, dumping them both on the floor. Korra kicked the door closed, hearing the content click of the lock set in place.

"I want to talk," Korra was finally able to mumble against Kaji's lips. "I want to know what _this _is."

"Whatever you want it to be," Kaji said curtly. "I'll take whatever you're willing to give me. Can't promise you won't want to give it all after a few more days with me though," she winked and smiled.

Korra's hands gripped at the lock, trying in vain to unclick it, to even move it to the left if only slightly. Nothing happened.

"We'll have a better shot at bursting out unnoticed whilst everyone is sleeping. The guards are pretty lax at night too."

Korra had no intention of sitting on her butt for hours until evening. "What are we going to do until then? It must be at least eight more hours, and ten if we want to be safe."

"We-ell," Kaji slid closer to Korra, pressing her against the wall again. Korra had noticed before that Kaji was a few inches taller than her. She used that extra height to her advantage, leaning an arm against the wall over Korra's head. Her other hand slid to pull at the collar of Korra's kimono. "I think I have an idea."

Korra's brain overheated, shutting off completely. The blush that painted her face scarlet raised her body heat by at least ten degrees. Kaji's fingers were exploring her collarbone, sliding into the small dip then continuing down. Korra gulped. She was most definitely not an expert at that sort of thing. In that instant she was equally divided into wanting to run and break the door down, consequences be damned, or to stay and feel Kaji's touch. Kaji seemed intent in answering Korra's indecision with very convincing arguments, though using her mouth for more than words. Korra felt her eyelids flutter as the other girl latched onto her throat. Kaji ran her tongue over the flushed skin, tasting the faint hints of salt. She gave a small moan of appreciation. Korra gasped and brought her hands to twine into her lover's hair. _Lover,_ she ran the word through her mind. It sounded sweet, delicate, and passionate just like the person it was describing.

Korra's breath hitched as Kaji's feathery lips left their perch and a cool breeze caught the spot now darkening from the pressure. Kaji's warm breath was Korra's only indication of the girl's ascent to her jaw. Kaji followed the sharp bone until it met with the sensitive earlobe. She took her time sucking on it, drawing on Korra's essence as though it were some kind of miracle drug. She finally succumbed to the urge to take a soft bite of the outcropping of skin. Korra's moan only spurred Kaji's desire. The blood was rushing to the sensitive pressure pinots below both of their navels, the need emanating from the girls in waves.

Kaji's hands became even bolder, drawing down along Korra's chocolate skin. The dip of her collarbone was left for the softer area just above Korra's breasts. The blue kimono had slid down, the small waist belt loosened at some forgotten point, exposing some of Korra's bra. It was a similar shade to the evening sky and Kaji couldn't help but rest her eyes on the fabric that separated her from the greatest treasure in existence. Korra squirmed in anxiety, mistaking Kaji's stillness as inhibition. She didn't think she could survive if Kaji backed off now.

Korra's doubts and any other thoughts she may have had immediately evaporated when the Fire Princess took her still covered nipple into her mouth. The pleasure was like an electric shock, spreading with the speed of a lightning strike. Korra's eyes snapped shut, her whole body convulsing into Kaji's touch, her lips. There was no area of Korra's being not on fire. She felt a wetness between her legs that had not been there before. Her head was pressed against the wall for support, lifting her up onto tip toes and spine arching into the other girl. Kaji felt Korra's nipple harden under the restricting fabric, wishing for actual contact. She ran her tongue against the hard zenith, swirling around before grabbing the edge of Korra's bra in her teeth and pulling it down. Korra's hand moved away from the ebony tresses to aide in Kaji's removal of her clothing. An animalistic growl from said person cut her of mid-movement. Korra smiled and obliged Kaji's fetish.

Kaji moved her hands up, placing them lightly on Korra's shoulders. The tension held there loosened ever so slightly, Korra's arch relaxing as the rush of euphoria died down. The silk was pulled off of her, exposing her whole upper body. The cool air rushed into the now open space, causing gooseflesh to appear on Korra's exposed skin. Her nipples hardened and thrummed for more attention. Kaji pulled back to admire the Water Tribe goddess before her. Korra's flushed cheeks darkened from embarrassment. Her heart quickened when she saw the degree of lust that colored deep liquid gold. Her hands slid from Kaji's hair to trace her jaw line and neck. The rushing pulse matched hers, thundering battle drums locked in a rhythm of pleasure.

"Don't stop," Korra murmured, begging for more. Willing for the empty hole in her chest to be filled with the new sensations Kaji instilled in her.

Kaji smirked. She pushed Korra into the wall, not roughly but with enough force to jolt the Avatar. Korra was about to interject, but was cut off by Kaji's hungry lips. Kaji pressed into Korra with a new vehemence, reveling in the way Korra's taste satisfied every craving she had. Her fingers splayed along the girl's taught stomach, outlining the hard muscles gained from years of training. Behind all of the power was a unique feminine softness, subtle and yet so pronounced. Kaji slid up along Korra's center, nails leaving faint red marks to map out her progression to the soft mounds awaiting her attention. Where Kaji's mouth had been a gentle presence, her fingers brought the friction that Korra needed to send her over the edge. As Kaji pinched Korra's already stiff nipples, her cries rang out to the high heavens. Kaji drowned them out in a searing kiss, hoping no one heard and came to cut their ecstasy short. Thankfully the steam jets shrieking behind them were enough to muffle their sounds. Korra didn't interject. As Kaji's tongue slid in and out of her mouth, she made a game of trying to gently catch it in her teeth. Kaji cupped her right breast and squeezed. Korra bit down on the prodigy's tongue hard. The metallic taste of blood filled her taste buds. Kaji moaned in reassurance when Korra tried to pull away and apologize.

Kaji massaged her hands around Korra's breasts with more ferocity, needing the heat, the contact. Korra dragged her hands along Kaji's back, grabbing onto the fabric of the dress when Kaji pulled on her sensitive points. Kaji ended their kiss and trailed a line of pecks down Korra's neck artery. A thin stream of blood marked the bronzed skin. Fresh goosebumps ran down Korra's chest. The room was now a sweltering humid temperature so she was sure that they were due to Kaji's magic. Kaji's lips had just reached the cleavage between Korra's breasts. She lingered there, making sure to lick up every bead of sweat that had collected in the small valley. Moving left, Kaji replaced the hand worshipping Korra's breast with her tongue once more. Korra would have screamed, but she bit her bottom lip. She didn't want it to end. The wetness between her thighs was now dripping down, the tension she felt knitting through her core, accentuated into that spot. She needed the release, the unwinding that only Kaji could provide.

"Take me," Korra barely managed to breathe.

"Gladly," Kaji answered, straightening up from where she was worshipping her goddess' flesh. She wrapped her hands around Korra's midriff and gently spun them around. Korra was lowered into the rope piled in the center of the room. The belt was quickly untied and discarded in a pile off to the side, forgotten. Kaji slid her fingers to hook the hem of the dress where the folds met. Korra waited with bated gasps as the firebender drew the fabric down. At first she was embarrassed by the dark shade of her panties, thoroughly soaked and clinging to her. Kaji lifted Korra's leg by the back of the knee and drew the dress over it. She did the same with the other leg. The sandals Korra had been wearing were kicked off. All of her movements were jaunty and disconnected, the anticipation in her muscles causing them to stiffen.

Korra couldn't tear her eyes off the top of Kaji's head as the girl bent down over her abdomen. She had never gone this far before. She had no idea what to expect, what to do. "W-wait," she tried to say. Kaji adamantly ignored her, lowering her lips slowly. Korra's pupils dilated with fear. "Wh-what's going to happen?"

The tremble in Korra's voice stopped Kaji's descent. She lifted her chin to face Korra's averted gaze. The last thing Kaji wanted was for the girl to lose some of her enjoyment because she was afraid. "It will hurt at first, but only a little. Then it will be over and the fun will start."

Kaji tenderly lifted Korra's hips and placed a rag she had obtained from one of the buckets to the side, under her lower back. Korra bit her lip. She didn't like not knowing what was about to transpire, however, she trusted Kaji. The girl hadn't hurt her yet, excluding the sparring match.

"I'll start slowly, then I'll warn you when the time comes. You can hold onto me as hard as you want," Kaji stroked Korra's bare thigh. Her smooth voice calmed Korra's racing mind slightly. Korra nodded an affirmative.

Kaji placed her lips against Korra's nether lips. Her panties were still a protective sheath, keeping the prodigy from taking Korra yet. It was the final question. Kaji was silently requesting permission to continue. Were she to pull back now, Kaji would leave her alone. She wouldn't push or cajole her into doing anything further. Korra sucked in a deep breath and stuck her thumb beneath the strap over her hip. She pulled it down as far as her arm could extend, exposing some of herself to the air which had once been a furnace but was now icy. Kaji took it, brushing her hand against Korra's fingers. Korra let go and allowed the fabric to be pulled down and over her feet. She was fully naked under Kaji's gaze. Kaji gave her one last reassuring smile, so different from her usual smirks, and took Korra's folds into her lips. Korra couldn't hold back her scream. The blinding euphoria rode through her veins and into her heart. The adrenaline was so heavily infused with her system that she thought she would suffer a minor heart attack. Perhaps she was in a way.

Kaji ran her tongue over Korra's clit, lapping up the nectar seeping out of her lover. There was no description that would be able to do it justice. No juice as sweet, no flower as fragrant, no stream as refreshing. Kaji took it all in. Korra writhed in passionate throws under her. Kaji reached a steadying hand to lightly hold Korra's bucking hips in place. She then sucked at the clenching muscles, marveling at the tightness they held. Her teeth grazed Korra's clit, biting with enough pressure to send a wave of gratification coursing down her lover's body. Korra's legs spread as wide as they could, giving her more entrance. She quickly glanced up at Korra's face. It was lost behind her chin, having been thrown back in her throws. For a second, Kaji's attention was ensnared by the way Korra's breasts moved with the rise and fall of her chest. With every gasp of breathe they perked up even more.

Not wanting to lose any more time and risk Korra regaining some cognition, Kaji thrust a finger into her. Korra instinctively tensed when she felt the digit slide into her core. The pain was biting as she felt something burst inside of her. Kaji quickly slid her body up to cover Korra's and held Korra's hand with the one she had left. Korra held onto her for dear life. As Kaji slid in and out, it felt like Korra was going to drown in the mixed waves of pain and pleasure intermittently wracking through her. Kaji slid a second finger in with the first one, stretching Korra to the point where small tears pricked behind her eyes. She refused to let them slide down. Her hips moved to the thrusts of Kaji's hand. Korra was panting so hard she thought she might pass out from oxygen deprivation. A sort of spasm overtook her. It was short; something caged waiting to be let free. Kaji sensed it too, speeding up her thrusts in and out of Korra. Tui and La, push and pull. Korra would have sworn Kaji was a natural waterbender; the way she worked her hands.

As the spasms came more rapidly, Korra began to claw at Kaji's back. She sensed that she needed something to tether her for what was coming. Kaji didn't complain when her kimono fell back and Korra became raking her ivory skin. She simply kept her rhythm.

Korra sensed her climax as it approached. Her entire body became as taught as a string. Her hands ceased their movements up and down Kaji's shoulder blades, fingers digging furrows. Her arms felt leaden and light at the same instant. Her stomach curled in on itself, her heart ceased to beat and the blood simply ran on the velocity it had gained. All of her chi had become concentrated at the point where Kaji was now. Korra released a mewl of anticipation. Kaji slid her fingers in deeper than she had before and curled them toward Korra's bellybutton. Korra's scream was barely covered by a sudden steam burst from the pipelines behind them. The air around them swirled in a mad vortex, knocking everything off the shelves and levitating it. In the eye of the storm, Korra and Kaji rode out her orgasm. Every fiber that had held tension was now loose. Warmth spread through Korra like honey, gooey and slow. Her heart had begun to beat a mile a minute again. Her clitoris thrummed with the aftershocks of her climax. Try as she might, Korra could not regain her breath.

When Korra's rocking subsided and her system came down from its high, Kaji slid her curled fingers out from Korra's center. She sat up, not breaking the contact with Korra's hands, now limply sliding from her upper back to the lower contours of the girl's hips. Kaji brought her fingers up and licked them clean of Korra's fluids. Korra blushed at the provocative gesture, but couldn't turn her eyes away. Kaji's hair was a perfect mess from Korra's twisting fingers. Her cheeks were also flushed and she was breathing hard though not as hard as Korra. Her dress had slightly unfolded, leaving a substantial amount of cleavage showing. Korra reached her hand up and traced a line of sweat from the dip between.

Kaji smiled down at her. "You did very well."

Korra simply gave Kaji an exhausted smile in return. Every muscle in her body was experiencing a minor ache. It felt pleasant in the wake of what they had just done. A broom suddenly fell forward and nearly slapped Korra in the forehead. Kaji quickly swatted it back to lean against the wall. Korra finally turned her attention to the contents of the room. Everything was strewn in heaps on the floor. The shelves that had been so neatly organized had been cleared of everything that had sat on them. One was even missing its top shelf. Kaji gave a small chuckle at the state of their surroundings. Korra couldn't help but feel self-conscious about it.

"I guess we'll have to make a note of that," Kaji joked. "Don't have sex inside because of tornado hazard."

"Sh-shut up," Korra huffed. She couldn't keep her pout for long though. Kaji's grin was infectious. "I guess I better get dressed huh."

"Well, you don't have to," Kaji leaned in to give Korra a light peck on the forehead.

"Pervert," Korra mocked.

She pushed herself up stiffly and located her dress. It had somehow flown up into the piping. Steam hung over them in a thin veil. She must have popped a gasket or something. The fabric was damp with condensed steam. She quickly remedied that. She then found her panties and bra. They were closer to home, hidden among the rope. Kaji handed them to her. Korra's eyes landed on the rag that Kaji had placed behind her. It was soaked crimson with her blood. A cold stone sank in the pit of her stomach.

Kaji noticed her stare. "It happens the first time. Don't worry; it's not an injury or anything."

Korra's ears heated. "So I can't lie to you about this being my first time."

"I wouldn't want you to. It makes this all the more special. Thank you," Kaji whispered the last sentence.

"I should be thanking you," Korra replied as she slid on the dress. "So, how long do we have until sundown now?"

"Hmmm," Kaji placed a finger to her chin in thought. Korra was still iffy in her positioning of the sun despite her firebending prowess. "About seven and a half more hours. Nine and a half if you want to be safe."

"Oh spirits," Korra whined and sat down with her hands folded in front of her chest. Kaji let out a light laugh. Korra soon joined her until they were both leaning against each other in fits of giggles.

**P.S. A little short but I updated twice... in one day. So no one can be too mad. This was my first time writing anything explicit like this. I was always more of a "they took the clothes off and on to the next morning" kind of writer. So please be gentle if it sucked. Any reviews are welcome, even flames that will make me curl into a corner and cry. :)**


	6. The Delegates

**A/N: I am sooooo sorry about the delay. I was working on this chapter for what seems like FOREVER! Gave the hardest time, and then I had a chemistry and math test, which I did awesomeon but no time for writing. And the lack of reviews makes me feel like a failure of a writer... but it is here now. Hope you like it, please review! Make me a happy, ecstatic person.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. In fact my mom and insomnia seem to be owning me lately.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Korra's ears heated. "So I can't lie to you about this being my first time."

"I wouldn't want you to. It makes this all the more special. Thank you," Kaji whispered the last sentence.

"I should be thanking you," Korra replied as she slid on the dress. "So, how long do we have until sundown now?"

"Hmmm," Kaji placed a finger to her chin in thought. Korra was still iffy in her positioning of the sun despite her firebending prowess. "About seven and a half more hours."

"Oh spirits," Korra whined and sat down with her hands folded in front of her chest. Kaji let out a light laugh. Korra soon joined her until they were both leaning against each other in fits of giggles.

Korra was comfortable in the warmth that was surrounding her. She figured that the sun had risen and was gracing her with the soft caresses of its rays. They felt tangible, almost like fingers playing with her long hair. Her body was a bit achy, but the soft pillow that she had buried her face in was enough to dull her body's complaints. It was a very soft pillow… and it had a great scent, like jasmine flowers mixed with something spicy… and… it appeared to be moving. The pillow was MOVING!

Korra bolted upright, looking around frantically. A thud followed by a string of curses, some of which made even her blush, sounded from the floor to her left. She was almost afraid of peering over the edge of the mattress. Laying flat on her tanned stomach, she pulled herself up by the corner of the bed until her nose was just past the rim, her sapphire eyes large and calculating.

The person in question was indiscernible due to being covered in a twisted blanket. What could have been hands or elbows pulled at the fabric in search of an escape. Finally, the corner was pulled over a head of messy black hair. It was long and reached well past the person's face and upper body. Korra was about to inquire as to what they were doing in her room and, now that she thought about it, in her BED! Her mystery visitor beat her to the punch.

"Jeez, you are most certainly not a morning person," a sarcastic, and painfully familiar voice said. Delicate ivory hands with perfectly manicured nails brushed the long locks to either side of the face. Kaji's annoyed expression glared at her from where she was sitting on the polished wooden boards.

Korra had completely forgotten that Kaji had spent the night, both of them being thoroughly exhausted after the trying events of the previous day. After their... intercourse… they had stayed in the small room until Kaji had indicated that the sun had gone down a few hours prior. They had not spoken much throughout the wait. Korra had- after some internal argument- found a comfortable position, leaning into Kaji's shoulder and playing with the girl's fingers. The contrast of light crème with Korra's bronze tone was not quite so prominent in the glare of the red light above them. Still, Korra couldn't help but remember the way Kaji had used the digits a few moments before. A blush crept over her. Kaji had, at one point, untangled a hand from Korra's and begun to absentmindedly stroke her brown locks. She murmured a few compliments on its silkiness and fragrance. It was almost perfect. If only Korra's thoughts had left her alone. She was still plagued by thoughts of Mako. Her feelings for him were still there, albeit not as prominent. Korra also wasn't sure if she would have been able to handle another blow to her heart. She couldn't get attached. Not again. But Kaji was making it so damn hard, what with her fingers lulling Korra into letting her guard down. She had reached over and stayed Kaji's roaming hand. Kaji relented and dropped it limply by her side. Korra had then stood and found another spot against the opposite wall, practically under the door. Kaji's face betrayed no emotion.

They didn't speak until it was time to make their escape. Kaji had inquired as to how Korra planned to execute her plan. Korra simply blasted the wood from its hinges and into the wall before it. The clamor must have woken the entire section of the palace. Voices of servants and guards, scurrying in frenzy, were heard from every corner. Kaji had sarcastically complimented Korra's strategic skills, but Korra wasn't listening. She grabbed the princess and rushed in the direction with the fewest signs of inhabitants. After sprinting down random hallways and through rooms with no certain direction, Kaji took the lead. She moved from between shadows, bee-lining toward Korra's room. They didn't slow until they were safely behind the door. Kaji, who was panting from not having eaten all day to replenish her energy, leaned against the whitewashed walls and slumped into a sitting position. Her knees were tucked against her chest and the crown of her head was propped against her legs. Korra wasn't much better. She found a particularly soft spot in her bed and flopped down. She mentally grimaced at thinking that she was, once again, sleeping in the clothes she had worn all day. At least her dress wasn't particularly dirty.

Kaji still hadn't moved from her spot on the floor. Korra twisted her neck so that she was able to look at the slumped girl without actually lifting her head from the mattress. "You can stay here if you want."

Korra immediately regretted offering. Cuddling up to the fire prodigy in her bed was most certainly not going to help Korra resist her charms. Just thinking of those warm arms, wrapping around her midsection, was enough to increase her heart beats.

Kaji raised her head and rested her chin on her knees. The tired and grateful smile she wore made Korra feel slightly guilty about wanting to go back on her offer. There was no turning back by that point. She simply opted to scoot over, kicking off her sandals in the process, and pull the sheets over herself. Kaji sat at the open side of the bed. Her eyes flickered in the moonlight spilling through the window doors leading to Korra's balcony. It was strange how all of the color was gone, leaving a ghostly silver overtone.

"Thank you," Kaji whispered into Korra's ear as she settled beneath the sheets. Korra felt a tickling sensation spread from the spot where Kaji's breath hit her. It moved across her jaw until it reached her lips. They yearned for the soft pressure that only Kaji provided. Korra turned to give a reply and, secretly, try to satiate her cravings. What she was met with was the back of her lover's head. The previously onyx tendrils running along the pillow shined white. Kaji's skin had turned paler, looking even suppler. Korra had to bite her bottom lip to keep it from running down the exposed neckline and upper shoulder. She turned her own back to the girl sharing her bed and tried not to think of how her heart no longer held its signature empty feeling.

"Umm, hello? Avatar Korra? Have I lost you to some spirit induced trance?" Kaji remarked snidely. Korra was so lost in her own mind that she didn't even have time to react when Kaji grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto the floor. Korra's face almost made contact with a very hard, very painful floor. However, Kaji saved her by redirecting her head into her lap. The rest of Korra's body wasn't so lucky and slapped into the ground.

"Hey," she said indignantly. Kaji's only reply was to turn her onto her back and give her a light peck on the lips. Korra looked at the pale expanse of skin that made up Kaji's neck and wondered how it would taste. She picked herself up onto her elbows and stuck her tongue out to run it across the inviting sight. Kaji's throat rumbled as she let out an appreciative growl. Korra ran her tongue in a circular motion, picking up on the faint morning perspiration that glossed over Kaji's epidermal layer. Salt and sweet mixed in one.

"Can you say 'good morning' like this every day?" Kaji teased. Korra was lost in the way Kaji's throat shook with each syllable.

Unfortunately, Kaji broke the contact by lifting her head and stretching her arms into the air. Her dress was crumpled from having been worn through the night. Korra's wasn't in any better condition. That was the furthest thing from the Avatar's mind as she watched the way Kaji's arm muscles tightened and relaxed. Every little movement reminded her of the small closet where she had practically let loose a hurricane from the amount of pleasure Kaji had elicited. _I need to seriously stop thinking about that before I go in public,_ Korra mentally whined.

Silence stretched between them. It was a mixture of simple enjoyment of each other's company and an awkward loss for words. Korra had never truly experienced a morning after, much less a night before. She was completely out of her element when it came to romance. _Not that we are romantically involved,_ she reminded herself. _Casual. Nothing too special._ She didn't know why it was constantly necessary to keep that in mind. She should have known better than to get attached again.

A soft rumble came from Kaji's direction. Korra turned in time to see her forcibly punch her stomach. Kaji's eyes lifted to meet Korra's questioning gaze. She smiled sheepishly and said a quick, "Hungry."

Korra couldn't hold in the chuckle that rose to her throat. However she was quickly covering up her own grumbling stomach. Both girls picked themselves up from the floor. Kaji placed the sheets back onto the mattress, leaning over to smooth out the creases. Korra was about to protest, but was silenced by the view of the sunlight gleaming over golden eyes and pale cheeks. Thin waves of gold mixed with the ebony hue of Kaji's hair. Having such a person before her took Korra's breath away.

"Enjoying the view?" Kaji asked, winking seductively.

"What view?" Korra bit back. Even as a joke, Kaji's narcissism annoyed her ever so slightly.

"Mean."

"Shut up."

Korra turned to her closet, a depression in one of the walls of the room, hidden by two mahogany doors with cherry blossoms engraved in them. Inside hung the dresses, shirts, and pants that Korra had brought. The outfit she had worn when Kaji had first kissed her was in the back. It was pristine, the rips mended and no stains visible. She had to thank whoever had taken it upon themselves to fix the wreckage her clothes had been. She grabbed the blue tank top and navy loose pants. Her furs she left, the temperature being way too hot for them. Her armbands were missing but she soon located them in one of the drawers hidden to the right side of the closet. The deep oceanic blue was a welcome sight among all of the blacks and reds. The only colors in the Imperial Palace she never got tired of were the streams of gold and sometimes bronze that reminded her of two sets of eyes that constantly flashed through her mind. Her heavy boots, she replaced with sleek black ones that were in the far back. Turning, she saw that Kaji had been observing her the entire time.

"You are either going to behave yourself while I get dressed, or I'm kicking you out into the hallway," Korra warned, mock glaring. Kaji raised her hands in the air and put on the most innocent expression she could muster. Korra rolled her eyes and added, "Turn around and don't peek."

"You know, it isn't anything I haven't had my hands and mouth all over," Kaji remarked. She was silenced by Korra pointedly indicating the door then demonstrating how she would literally kick Kaji in its general direction.

"Behave yourself," Korra muttered. Kaji turned and stood facing a wall. Satisfied, Korra drew the cardinal curtains to cover the large glass doors leading outside. She then removed the old dress and threw it precariously onto the bed. Her pants and tank top had never felt so welcome. She performed a few practice slings of her arms and legs, reveling in the unrestricted movements. The boots came on next. Korra cleared her throat, indicating to the room's other occupant that she was done.

"Alright. Do you want to get breakfast?" Korra inquired.

"It would be an honor," Kaji replied. Korra rolled her eyes at the unnecessary pomp, "but I have to meet with the delegates of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes that arrive this morning. Inzei is probably going to burn me alive for missing practically a whole day of preparation."

"More delegates are coming?" Korra hadn't heard anything about that. She had thought that only her presence was required… well, along with Tenzin.

"The Fire Nation has been atoning for the Hundred-Year War, but the nations are still very wary of each other. Each time a new leader is chosen, they must be accepted by the other nations as well," Kaji moved to Korra and beckoned her to sit on the bed. Korra obliged her, sensing there was more Kaji had to say. At some point, the firebender had procured a hairbrush. She now ran it through the small tangles in the Avatar's hair. Korra was lulled by the feeling of the bristles massaging her scalp.

"The earth Kingdom is sending a member of some organization called the Dai Li. They were reinstated after King Xing came into power. The Northern Water Tribe is sending the son of the Chief to get more experience in politics. The Southern Water Tribe's candidate is probably the only one I have to worry about. She's the last remaining member of the former Avatar's little entourage."

"Master Katara's coming here!" Korra gaped. Kaji's tone had darkened considerably when she mentioned the wise old waterbender. Korra couldn't help but get a little defensive when it came to her waterbending teacher. "You sound like you don't like her very much."

Kaji shrugged from behind Korra and started gathering her hair into her usual ponytail, leaving a few strands in front. Those would be made into their own tails. "I have not met her and therefore cannot form a just judgment."

Korra slumped. No way to continue that string of conversation. She simply waited for Kaji to finish with her hair. Once she was released, Korra moved toward the door and poked her head out. The coast seemed clear. She beckoned to Kaji, indicating that it was a good time to slip out and go their separate ways. The firebender gave a limp wave goodbye and headed in the opposite direction of Korra's path. She didn't know why, but Korra could sense that Kaji was upset about something. Korra shook her head. There was no way she was going to be able to think on an empty stomach and she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast the day before.

Following vases again, she reached the dining area. For the first time since the airbending family had gotten to the Fire Nation, they were all sitting together. Sitting was termed loosely. Meelo was bouncing up and down, grabbing grapes in his mouth as Ikki pelted them at him. Tenzin had been appointed baby duty, holding his youngest son while also trying to eat. Jinora and Pema were in some sort of heated discussion over a case of not wanting to eat at all. Korra took the last available seat, to the left of Ikki and the right of Pema. A grape sailed over her and into the jaws of the over hyper airbender boy.

"Korra, nice of you to join us," Tenzin greeted. He grimaced as Baby Rohan pulled at his sharp goatee.

"Sorry, did I oversleep?" Korra asked sheepishly, running her hand through her hair. Kaji had made it up much nicer than Korra ever did.

"Not by much. I have some matters of state to discuss with you."

"Enough Tenzin," Pema chastised. "The poor girl hasn't even eaten yet."

"It's alright," Korra interjected. She was really curious about Master Katara's imminent arrival and wanted to ask Tenzin about it. "I can listen while I eat."

Her plate was soon full with some rice in a creamy sauce and sprinkled with mushrooms. On the side, she had set aside two little bowls of lychee and one platter of dragonfruit. The rest was left for a later date where Korra was more open to food experimentation, or a day where she had a guinea pig to try it for her.

Tenzin cleared his throat and began, "Well, I would first like to address your absence throughout the day yesterday. I was beginning to worry that you had lost yourself in the palace, or worse, outside of it."

"I uh- did- get lost, I mean. I opened a door thinking it was a way to get back. Turned out it was some kind of supply room. The door was only able to be opened from the outside and it closed so I waited until someone found me," it wasn't completely a lie.

"You didn't metalbend the lock?" Tenzin asked skeptically.

"I couldn't. It wasn't made of metal," again Korra cursed the stinginess of the architects. Wooden door knobs? What the hell?

"Well, at least you were safe," Tenzin relented. He would inquire about Korra's day later. More pressing matters had to be attended to. "The rest of the delegates who had been summoned for Prince Iroh's coronation as Crown Prince are arriving in a few hours. We, you and I, along with Fire Lord Inzei and Crown Princess Kaji will be present in the throne room to greet them."

"Who are they?" Korra asked. She knew one attendee, but she was curious about the others.

"From the Earth Kingdom, the new head of the Department of Intelligence, or Dai Li, Izuru Kain. The Northern Water Tribe's prince, Prince Yun, will also be present. Finally, my mother, Master Katara will be the voice of the Southern Water Tribe."

"Master Katara's coming!" Korra didn't have to work too hard to express surprise and excitement in her exclamation. "Awesome!"

"Indeed," Tenzin stated formally. Korra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. At times, Tenzin could be such a stiff. It was his mother he was talking about for spirits' sake. A little excitement wouldn't kill him.

"So, am I supposed to get all dolled up for this meeting, or can I just go as I am?" Korra really hoped it was the latter option.

"What you have now is sufficient. The world knows that outfit as your own. It will be a good representation of your heritage." Apparently the universe was on her side.

"Yes! Thanks Tenzin," she beamed. Her perky attitude was not lost on him. Tenzin wasn't sure whether he wanted to question Korra's unprecedented good mood or if the better option was to leave her be.

The rest of the morning was spent entertaining the children, during which Korra tried her best to avoid flying pieces of food and children ricocheting from the walls. Pema calmed Meelo by handing his younger brother to him. Korra couldn't help but smile at the care and concern the boy showed for the baby in his arms. It was nice knowing Meelo didn't destroy everything he touched. Tenzin excused himself, leaving to get himself ready for the meeting later in the day. Pema took the opportunity to walk up to Korra. At times, she saw the teenage girl as another daughter, and as such, she could sense the drastic changes that had overtaken the girl the past few days.

"So, you are looking very pleased about something," she observed, trying to get to the bottom of Korra's sudden alterations in demeanor.

The girl visibly stiffened under Pema's curious glance. Korra quickly found an excuse that would most probably not give the woman next to her a heart attack. "Umm, you know- Master Katara's coming- and then there's- it is nice here- err, the flowers are pretty."

Korra made a note to learn how to lie better. She would have to if she was going to be able to keep her little escapades with Kaji secret. Spirits forbid it if Katara asked her. Her master had a way of seeing through any of Korra's thoughts.

"Yes, they are indeed," Pema laughed. "So, would one of said flowers have a name?"

_Oh spirits! Think Korra. Any excuse. Any sort of _"Distraction!" she yelled without actually doing anything. Pema looked at her in bewilderment. She had not been expecting such an outburst. Korra's hand moved to cup her mouth.

"I-I suppose I won't ask anymore," Pema said, trying to calm the girl. Korra's eyes looked like they would pop out of her head any second.

"Excuse the interruption," a new voice called from behind them. Korra whipped her head around, perhaps too quickly, and heard the audible click of her neck adjusting. Pema also turned a curious eye on the new presence. Korra barely held in the groan when she saw that it was none other than Panties-in-a-Bunch. He was wearing the same attire as the first day she had met him. His expression was as unchanged as his clothing. "I am here to escort Avatar Korra and Master Tenzin to the throne room. The Earth Kingdom airship has just arrived and the others have been spotted not too far from the Great Gates of Azulon."

"That was quick," Korra mused. They had said a few hours out but it had barely been two.

"Yes," Panties-in-a-Bunch agreed while also sweeping her statement aside. "Where is Master Tenzin?"

Pema answered in an aggravated tone. She apparently disliked the man as much as Korra did. "He is preparing for the meeting. He will be back shortly."

The man nodded once. He stuck his hands in the long sleeves of his robe and shrank into the perimeter of the room, perhaps to be less obtrusive. Korra found him just as annoying out of the way. Thankfully, Tenzin didn't take much longer in reappearing. The awkward silence had been killing her. Tenzin was dressed in his usual airbending robes. The yellow robes tucked under his brilliant red cape, held together by a small pin, swished with his every movement. The blue arrow on his forehead contrasted with his white scalp. His brown eyes were set in the determined stately stare that foreshadowed an important event.

"Master Tenzin, Avatar Korra, if you would please follow me," Panties-in-a-Bunch turned and exited the room. Tenzin gave a quick farewell peck to Pema and started after the thin man. Korra bounded over to keep pace. Her nerves were on edge from Kaji's bipolarity and the prospect of seeing Master Katara after the months away.

The throne room was as imposing as ever. Korra quickly glanced over at the window that she had flown through two days before. The marble floor had been remade without the pillars of stone jutting from it. The window itself was good as new as well. The glass gleamed with the sunlight as though nothing had occurred.

Fire Lord Inzei sat behind his wall of orange flames. They were much lower, barely flickering above the braziers that held them. It gave a warmer setting to the room, not so foreboding. Inzei wore the same outfit he had on the first day they had met, carbonate laced in gold. His hair was down, spilling over his shoulders and back, except for a small topknot that held his crown. Kaji held a place just below the dais to the Fire Lord's right side. She had opted for the formal robes of the Fire Nation royal family as well. Her robes were similar to Inzei's only without the fire sigil on the top layer. Her hair was also let down with a slight topknot for her crown. Her eyes flickered to Korra and the icy glare melted slightly. The rest of her face gave no indication that she felt anything toward the Avatar. Korra attempted to emulate it by keeping her attention focused on the Fire Lord. She found it increasingly difficult, as though some sort of magnetic force kept pulling her eyes in Kaji's direction.

"I take it that you have been informed that the Earth Kingdom emissary has arrived and the others are expected within the hour," Fire Lord Inzei skipped the formalities, opting to get on with the issue at hand.

"Yes, your servant was most helpful and most patient," Tenzin nodded. The compliment came a bit strained, not that Korra could blame him.

"Ah, yes. Korsan, you are dismissed for the moment. Your services will not be needed until the rest of the representatives of the Water Tribes are here." Korsan, Korra drew the name out snidely in her mind, bowed and exited the room. His robes swished against the polished marble until he was well beyond the open doors of the room. Two muscular guards then pulled the heavy gates closed, giving them privacy.

"Do they know of the slight modification to the coronation ceremony?" Tenzin continued once they were alone.

Inzei's brow furrowed, showing his age in the deep lines across his broad forehead. His hair seemed to have grown a few shades of grey since the last time Korra had seen him. "No. They still believe it is my son who is to be crowned."

Korra's gaze drifted to Kaji's static form, still sitting on the small plush cushion below the Fire Lord's raised dais. Her eyes were trained on the two men conversing, almost predatory in the way they took in every stray movement of her subjects' faces. Each twitch that could give away what they were internally musing was silently catalogued within the whirring gears of Kaji's intellect. They were subtle, but Korra could pick up the barest hints of apprehension behind her tight shoulders. The golden irises flicked over to her. For a moment, Korra was staring into the orbs of the dragons circling the columns around them, only these had pupils of the darkest stygian depths. In a way, they were even more frightening. Almost alien from the hidden warmth that Korra was used to seeing, swimming guarded just behind the cryptic mask, now missing completely.

Then the gaze moved on, back to the Fire Lord and Airbending Master. Korra felt warm tears suddenly pool behind her eyelids. She forced them down with some effort, wondering whether they were from fear or disappointment at being seen as a cursory detail. The usually mischievous fires that shined behind her iridescent blue eyes dulled as she reapplied her political façade.

They did not have to wait long for the ambassadors of the three nations to be escorted to the palace. Inzei retook his position behind the wall of flames, now high enough to hide his face. Kaji also made herself a path and came to stand by her ruler's side. Her silhouette was a mere shadow behind the throne that seated Inzei. Korra and Tenzin stood to the left with their backs to the doors. She reminded herself not to turn her head when the doors were once more, flung open to accommodate the procession.

The first person to come into the right corner of Korra's vision was a tall, rather lanky looking boy. His skin was a shade darker than hers, symbolizing his Water Tribe heritage. He wore rich, flowing cerulean robes outlined in the snowy white pelts of the snow fox-wolves. His hair was slicked back over his head and drawn into a wolf tail, held together by a leather ribbon. His eyes were piercing icicles, tinted blue but mostly the color of the landscape of his home. They were lined with hidden nervousness at being so far from his land and amongst some of the most powerful people in the Four Nations. The woman next to the Northern Water Tribe prince was dressed in dark emerald clothing. In the center of her chest was emblazoned a filled golden circle within an open ringlet of a similar color. Her hair was inky enough to perfectly match Kaji's, reflecting the flames in streaks of orange, and put up into a tight bun held together by a jewel-encrusted clip. The eyes that looked into the flames were a luminescent shade of green, glowing with an ethereal light. Her presence somehow unsettled the young Avatar, reeking of secrets and plots. The final guest soon took up all of Korra's attention. The wizened old woman was dressed plainly in her blue furs, still bearing her hair in loopies and a braid. The deep royal sapphires that sparkled with the light of her kind heart seemed to calm even the prince's frayed nerves. Seeing Katara again, after so long had Korra practically, internally, squealing with joy.

"I bid you welcome to my humble home," Fire Lord Inzei's voice sounded from within the flames, crackling and writhing like some small spirits in a dance. Each new occupant gave a polite bow of their heads, accepting the invitation.

"It is many things Inzei," Master Katara spoke, her voice still flowing synonymous to her bending, "but 'humble' is not one of them."

The Fire Lord disregarded the break in formal conduct, allowing a faint laugh to drift over the barrier separating him from his audience. "Perhaps I can remedy some of the tension caused by the power held in these halls."

The fire dissipated before the tall man as he came from his high position. His eyes were light as he took in the short old woman. Katara beamed back. She had always made it a point to keep in touch with the royal line of the Fire Nation and keep the monarchs in check. Zuko had used her advice often, calling on her in times of distress and peace alike. His daughter had likewise trusted her and, when it was her turn to step down, so had her husband. Inzei had proven himself a just and kind ruler, though not a direct descendent of Agni.

"Before I can go into any more pleasantries, I am afraid I must continue with business. The reason you have all come is to approve of my successor, in respect to the oath sworn by all nations after the Hundred Year War so that peace may be upheld. Prince Yun, Agent Kain, and Master Katara… may I present to you, my heir and the future Fire Lord," Inzei motioned to the dark figure still obscured behind the shadows cast by the inferno engulfing the dais before them. Korra held her breath, waiting for Kaji's entrance, hoping that all went well for the girl.

Two pairs of blue eyes widened and a pair of green narrowed as a section of Inzei's fire shifted into a bright royal blue infused with white. Korra couldn't help but take an intake of breath at the splendor with which Kaji emerged from her hiding place. The way the blue flames danced around her arms and licked at her jaw and cheeks without actually harming her. Her eyes flashed iridescent, then white, and finally settling into the epitome of the precious metal that symbolized the royal line. The onyx folds of her clothing seemed to be outlined in a faint light, almost making her appear godly. Korra could not have said that she had looked more beautiful than she did at that moment.

"Azula?!" a disbelieving hiss ran through Master Katara's clenched teeth. Korra barely caught it, but as she whipped her head to face her mentor, she saw a foreign emotion hit the usually warm eyes. They had become a stormy vortex of surprise, hatred, and something more. Something that Korra had never seen before. Perhaps hurt, perhaps another form of anger, perhaps something indiscernible.

"What is the meaning of this Inzei?" Katara spoke up, her voice constricting into a sort of growl. Kaji's face remained monotone in the face of Katara's glare. Korra almost wanted to run in front of the girl, fearing that Katara's eyes might actually start flinging daggers.

"We have much to discuss. I am aware that this may be of some shock to-" Inzei started.

"What… is the meaning… of this?" Katara repeated. Prince Yun looked like he wanted to crawl into any available corner or shadow at that moment. Izuru Kain had a faint smirk playing at her thin lips.

The Fire Lord shrank away slightly from the Katara's boiling wrath. "T-this is Crown Princess Kaji of Agni's blood. She will be taking the thrown after the sun sets on my reign."

"How did this come to be?" Katara bit out. The question held the sting of a whip, and yet, Kaji stayed still, placid.

"Crown Princess Kaji-" Inzei began.

"Not without our approval she isn't," Prince Yun spoke up. His voice was high-pitched for his age. The defiance with which he tried to assert himself was only further evidence of how green he was in the political game. His remark was made, figuratively, by riding on the coattails of the senior bender. Katara, however, nodded her agreement and emboldened the youth.

"Princess Kaji," Inzei amended but his tone was gruff and silencing, "challenged my son, Prince Iroh, to an Agni Kai for the title of heir to the Fire Nation. She was successful in defeating him. By the sacred laws of our land, her reward must be honored."

"This fight was not approved by the Council of Nations," it was the first time the shady Earth Kingdom woman had spoken. Her voice was smooth and clear, though low.

It was Inzei's turn to raise his voice, "I do not remember resigning my country and the power I hold as Fire Lord over to the Council. It is by my good will that this meeting is even taking place. You would do well to remember it."

"Those are dangerous words Fire Lord," Katara cautioned. Her eyes had yet to leave Kaji's, both enraptured in their staring match.

"It is my country and the laws that preside over it are not ordained by a foreign body," Inzei retorted. Korra had gained a new respect for the man. Katara and the other two delegates were giving him the perfect chance to reappoint his son as the heir to the throne, but he was taking Kaji's side. Still, she was torn between her loyalty of Master Katara and her newfound, _minor_, affections for Kaji.

"I for one am perfectly fine with this new candidate for the Fire Nation," Izuru Kain interjected before any more heated words could be thrown around. "I would like to inquire as to Princess Kaji's credibility for such a position however. Fire Lord Inzei, you mentioned she is the blood of Agni. How are you so certain?"

"Is it not obvious?" Master Katara cut Inzei off from answering. "She holds mastery over the blue flames. Only a few have been able to control it, all of whom were of the royal bloodline. Still, you are most certainly not a descendant of Zuko."

The final statement was directed to the silent prodigy. Kaji, ever laconic, answered with a simple yet firm, "No."

Katara's assumptions proven correct only served to ignite her convictions further. "How can you trust her? She is of Azula's blood! Need I remind you of the crimes committed by that woman?"

"Princess Azula was fully reinstated into her rank and title and proved her loyalty to the Fire Nation multiple times after her release from prison. Do you doubt Fire Lord Zuko's wisdom?" Kaji inquired in a monotone. The Dai Li agent nodded her head in assent, a secret smirk tugging the corners of her pale lips. Yun and Katara were both unconvinced, though the boy seemed to be swaying in resolve.

"It is not his wisdom that I doubt, only her intentions… and, by default, yours as well," Katara fired back.

"I have done nothing to warrant your hostility," Kaji never missed a beat. "The prejudices you hold for my grandmother are clouding your judgment of the current matter."

"Do not talk down to me girl," Katara's voice had dropped and with it, the temperature also lowered. Korra fidgeted form one foot to another. "I have seen more suffering and pain than you could imagine, much of which was caused by Azula. She is no saint, and I will be dead before I trust anyone who has been raised under her influence."

"Mother please," Tenzin stepped forward. Up until that point, he had not moved, much less said anything. "In this case, Crown Princess, because that is what she is," he cut off the woman's protests before they came forth from her lips, "has the right. There are no grounds on which the crown can be denied to her."

The silence that stretched through the seconds after Tenzin's statement was notorious. Katara did not know what she could say that would combat her son's cool rebuttal. There was no way to deny that the girl, Kaji, was ineligible for the Fire Throne. She would only sound eristic if she based her arguments on the sense of foreboding she felt whenever those sharp golden eyes met her own. In the end, she thought of a way in which she did not completely capitulate.

"I will agree… with one ultimatum," Katara continued adamantly. She would not stand to see everything she and Aang and the rest fought for burn to ashes, even if she was being paranoid. She was one of the first to believe in second chances, however the deceased Fire Princess was an exception… and by default, so was her disciple.

"Name it," Inzei said. "I would rather everyone leave content, than to have to resort to petty debates and arguments."

"The girl shall come to Republic City, where I will be staying for the duration of three months. There, she will be taught the manner of running a state by the Council and be supervised by me."

"I cannot do that," Inzei shook his head. His hands were tied but there was no way that he would be able to afford sending his heir to the Earth Kingdom, even if Republic City acted as its own state. "She must learn the ways and politics of our nation. Time is of the essence as I am starting from scratch."

"My Lord, if I may interject?" Kaji took a step forward. Inzei gave her a curious gesture of his hand, allowing her an audience. "Princess Azula taught me all of the Fire Nation's history and politics until I was well versed in all such things. I believe that three months is a feasible amount of time and I already have a strong foundation. If it will quell Master Katara's fears, is it not worth the wait?"

Inzei sighed and rubbed his temples. Having Katara teach Kaji was not an adverse notion. If the girl was truthful about her knowledge, and he did not doubt she was, then he had nothing to keep her. Having Master Katara's assent in Kaji's coronation was also something he desperately needed. Gravely he nodded, first at the young girl, then at the wise old woman.

"You are all fools," Katara grumbled, but she knew the battle was done. Her demands met, she had no further ground to stand on. "I do this with the greatest trepidation, but I accept your decision Fire Lord Inzei. Let us hope we do not live to regret it."

All heads now turned to Yun. The boy quivered and nodded his head. Inzei then called the guards in and instructed them to bring the document that would hold the approving signatures of the emissaries. The parchment was a crisp milky color with imperial gold leaf lacing, the ink jet black, and the Fire Lord's seal a deep crimson._ Fire Nation colors, what a surprise,_ Korra thought sarcastically. The Dai Li agent procured a pen from the interior of one of her drooping sleeves. Her signature was a delicate serpentine green spread in intricate swirls and loops. Yun and Katara used the ink provided. Their signs were both blocked and practical, though Katara's was more elgant script. The pen was next handed to Tenzin. His longhand was the largest of them all. When it finally got to Korra, she had to stay her shaking fingers before she quickly scribbled her name above the rest.

"With this, the crowning is official," Izuru Kain announced. "Congratulations Crown Princess Kaji."

Korra did not like the way the woman stared at Kaji. The eyes of the two girls met and, for a moment, the similarity was striking. A hidden message seemed to run through the connection between Kaji and Izuru's abysmal pupils. Had Korra been open with herself, she might have mistaken the twinge within her heart as jealousy. She quickly discarded the notion as an absurdity. Still, the feeling persisted.

"I thank you for taking the time to make this journey, and I humbly pledge myself to my country, but also to the pursuit of world peace," Kaji bowed her waist. Her gesture was returned by all except for Katara, straight as an unconquerable mountain, and Korra, who Kaji would never allow to bow to anyone.

"Your loyalty is well received," Agent Kain remarked. "I apologize, but I must be leaving this evening by order of the Earth King. I would like a private audience with Crown Princess Kaji… by your leave Fire Lord."

"You may," Inzei replied. He was in serious need of some fire water to subdue the raging headache, at least initially. "Master Katara, Prince Yun, you will be escorted to your rooms in the guest wing. I believe that you will be staying for the festivities of the summer solstice in three days?"

"I will be staying, yes," Master Katara nodded. She was planning on leaving with her son and his family. "However, I would like to see my son and pupil as it has been far too long."

"M-my father allowed me leave to partake in your celebration," Yun stammered out. "I-I will make my exit at present. Thank you for your hospitality."

As everyone relaxed and took to their separate tasks, Korra, Tenzin, and Katara were left standing in a small circle before the empty throne. Korra couldn't hold herself in any longer. She took a flying leap and pulled her mentor into a tight hug. The woman though frail looking, took the brunt of Korra's barrage and squeezed the excited girl. Korra had missed the scent of snow and pelts that marked the peoples of the Water Tribes. Mixed with Katara's ever present warmth was like coming home.

"You have grown so much, child," Master Katara smiled and took in Korra's image. She had grown taller, or Katara had grown shorter. Her hair was held in the same fashion as the day she had taken off for the mysteries of Republic City. There was something more to the brilliant blue eyes as well. The childlike innocence that came from the seclusion of the training grounds where Korra had lived all her life was gone. Knowledge had replaced it as well as experience. Katara could read it all; the courage, pain, insecurity, and love that had blossomed like a forget-me-not in the sunlight.

"I missed you Master Katara," Korra replied, her eyes teared up with all of the emotions running through her like a flood. "I'm so happy that you'll be staying with us."

"As am I child. As am I," a new resolve hit the master bender. She would see what Azula had planned through this new girl that called herself Crown Princess. If for nothing else, she would do so to protect the beautiful heart of the Korra she saw before her. Three months would be ample time. Three months would reveal the game the blue firebenders were playing.

**P.S. I hope it isn't too long. I intially split it in two parts, but then it had a really boring ending. Not that this is an amazing one or anything, but I like it as an exposition to later chapters. Anyway, thank you for reading and please give me your feedback, telepathically or through typing it down. Preferably the latter option as I can't read minds.**


	7. The Festival

**A/N: I am soooooooo sorry I am so late in updating. It has been like, six days! I have good reasons though. Uhh, this week sucked. But here it is, chapter 7. And, for anyone who read my other stories while I was still updating them, it took me two weeks or so to updat so I'm not that bad. ANyway, please note that there is a lemon toward the end of the chapter. Stop reading after the evening fireworks if you don't want to partake. Please review! it will make me feel less emo and depressed.**

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING! Except the idea of animal sparkler which, by the way, should totally be invented one day.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"Master Katara, you will be escorted to your rooms in the guest wing. I believe that you will be staying for the festivities of the summer solstice in three days?"

"I will be staying, yes," Master Katara nodded. She was planning on leaving with her son and his family. "However, I would like to see my son and pupil as it has been far too long."

Thinking retrospectively, Korra had not seen Kaji since the meeting where she reunited with Master Katara. If anything, it seemed like the fire prodigy was avoiding her like the plague, or rather the ever lingering presence of her mentor. Katara had not left Korra's side, excluding the evenings after they all retired to bed, since she had come. Not that Korra minded it really. It was a comfort to have Katara back in her life. After all of the instability and drama that had come from Amon's rebellion, her losing her bending- and eventually regaining it- and Mako's disappearance, it was nice to finally have a sturdy rock to rely on. And Master Katara was the epitome of the caring grandmother and protector. Still, Korra couldn't help but feel the absence of Kaji from her life. It was amazing how she hadn't even known the girl for a week and yet, Korra's world seemed just a tad bit darker without her.

"Will you be going to the festivities?" Katara's motherly voice broke through Korra's musings. She smiled back at her teacher. The Fire Nation summer festival honoring the longest day of the year was being held that day. Tenzin and his family had gone down to enjoy the crisp smells, awing shows, and harmonic music. Korra had opted to stay indoors, feeling more pensive.

"I don't know. I'm a little wary about going out in public here. I get lost in the palace alone. Being out and about just doesn't seem like a good idea," Korra replied wistfully. If a certain firebender would invite her out, she wouldn't say 'no.' That didn't seem like a likely possibility though.

"Well, I think it would be a good idea for you to immerse yourself into a new culture. The summer festival is wonderful," Katara's actinic blue eyes glazed slightly as she lost herself in the vivid memories of the previous festivals she had attended in her youth. Korra caught a slight shadow pass through her mentor's features, but it was quickly gone and she forgot about it.

"Maybe. What about you Master Katara?"

"I will go out for the fireworks in the evening, but I suppose I should leave the day for the young," Katara smiled before laying a hand on Korra's shoulder. She had to extend her arm fully to reach it. She never could stop reveling in the subtle changes Korra had gone through. "Go child. It will do you good to be among people."

With that, Katara swept out of the small living room Korra had retreated to after the guest quarters had emptied out of most of their occupants. The room was actually a cozy copy of the breakfast room, though there were more windows and the curtains had taken on their regular vermillion. Korra was currently leaning out of one of the windows, running her fingers down the complex square patterns that outlined the rim of the pane. The sky outside was without a cloud, almost as though Agni himself was gracing the Fire Nation with the descending rays of sunlight. The view itself was a beautiful sloping glance over the city. Cheers and merriment tickled Korra's eardrums from far below where crowds of tiny people bustled. At one point, a large canvas dragon wound its way through the crème pavement and iridescent crowd. The swirling golden mane spun with every movement of the people hidden beneath the sumptuous velvety cloth. Scales were outlined in fine silver dust, shining in the midday light. The crimson base color swam through the air in serpentine arc s. Another dragon followed, this one as blue as the sky overhead. Its mane was a bone ivory and the scales were copper streams. The two met and proceeded down one of the wider streets together, moving as one in a complex dance. Korra sighed and wondered whether she really should go out and enjoy the festivities. Her answer came in a light pressure against the small of her back. Her muscles stiffened, startled by the sudden appearance of another person in the room. Wide blue eyes met amused gold.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," Kaji whispered. Korra wondered at her secrecy, "I had to be quiet so I didn't alert your guardian down the hall."

"My wha-" Korra started but was shushed by Kaji's finger pressed against her lips. The firebender twisted her head to look behind her like some animal expecting to be jumped on any second.

"Come to the Summer Festival with me," Kaji continued, her voice low and pressing gently against Korra's ear. The small peach fuzz stood on end from the proximity.

"Okay," Korra agreed. Her chest held an internal warmth when Kaji twined her fingers into her own. She gave into the tugs of the other girl as she was led to a corner in the wall overhung with a ceiling-to-floor length curtain. Behind it, Kaji pulled a small lever and what seemed like solid plaster swung in to reveal a torch lit passageway.

Kaji smiled at Korra's incredulous expression. They descended a small set of stone steps, Kaji pulling another lever quickly so that the wall slid back in place, before the ground leveled out and they continued at a light jog. Korra was finally able to take in the appearance of her lover. Kaji wore loose fitting pants, matching in design to her own comfortable ones. Her shirt was tight around her, accentuating every curve, with a golden phoenix spiraling against a burgundy background. Kaji's hair was down, pulsating in waves of coal and bronze from the lighted braziers. Korra couldn't help but smile at the casual dress, so similar to the one she preferred and had adorned. Her own shirt was her usual tank top, and she had slung on the arm bands, dark blue for her forearms and one light blue with white triangles on her right bicep.

The passage wound in a spiral for a while, slightly sloping down so they moved much quicker. It led only forward with no outlying doors that Korra could see. She didn't doubt that there were others though. Optical illusions must have been the architect's main aspiration in constructing the framework of the Royal Palace.

"So, how are you so knowledgeable about the secret passageways of the royal palace?' Korra teased with a hint of genuine curiosity.

"I used to live here actually," Kaji revealed. "Grandmother Azula trained me here and I had my own quarters and everything. She kind of kept me a secret though. I never really figured why, but she was known for her paranoia so I suppose she didn't want me hurt. The only other person who knew I existed was Fire Lord Zuko."

"Not even Inzei?" Korra asked in bewilderment.

"No," Kaji affirmed. "And I left four years ago after my grandmother died. I wanted to continue training. I spent practically all of my youth here though, so I practically know every corner of the palace and the tunnels leading to and from it."

"And then you came back to take the throne?" Korra wondered.

"Sort of. I found a letter that my grandmother had written to me. She expressed the date of the ceremony and her wishes, that I would partake in an Agni Kai and win the title. I guess I was her second chance at the throne."

Korra was slightly taken aback at Kaji's confession. A small part of her was slightly angry that the girl had risked her own life and Iroh's, along with taking over Iroh's place in his destiny, just because her grandmother had asked it of her. It didn't seem like the right reason. Still, the thought that, had Kaji not challenged the Prince, Korra would have never met her was enough to quell the harsh judgments.

"You learned your firebending from your grandmother as well, didn't you?" Korra continued despite her troubled thoughts.

"Yeah. After my father left, my grandmother took me in and trained me. When she saw that I had the same color fire as she did, she made sure that I learned all that I could. She was quite old by then, but she was the most amazing person I'd ever seen," Kaji's revelry was not lost upon Korra. She could tell that the girl practically worshipped the former fire princess. She chose to not comment on Kaji's nonchalant remark about her father and opted to continue in silence.

When they finally reach the end of the walkway, Korra and Kaji found themselves facing a bulwark of stone. Korra was about to snidely inquire whether Kaji had gotten lost, but quickly ate her words when the fire prodigy shot a small burst of flame into a hollow horn of iron, partially hidden in the shadow of the converging walls. The small funnel warmed until it glowed a bright smoldering red. Then, ever so slightly, it turned and clicked. The wall slid into a groove. The room they found themselves in was not very spacious and looked like some kind of factory junk room. Piles of twisted and discarded metal and ceramic products littered the boxes that were stacked in every available space. The small path that wove between them was also cluttered with junk, most probably fallen from their respective piles. Kaji pulled her through until they came to a thick iron door. The hinges creaked in protest as they opened it. Small red shavings of rust fell around their feet, only to be swept away as the door swung in.

Outside, the sun was blinding. Korra took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust. In her momentary blindness, the first thing she noticed was the noise. The atmosphere was buzzing with the excited voices of children begging their parents for a treat or toy, by peddlers showing off their wares, and by the hum of private conversations and exclamations of joy. Pops and sizzles came from one particular area that, when Korra came in sight of it, she recognized as a fireworks shop. Children ran around with little sparklers fizzing on the long slender sticks. Korra felt like them as she was drawn by the man who owned the store. In his arms he held five different sparklers, each in different colors and sparking in different patterns. The blue one was running in a tight spiral, an indigo sea snail shell. The green one sparkled straight up into the air and cascaded in a sort of umbrella over his fingers. The red and white ones were manipulated into forming complex animals, a tiger-wolf and flying lemur respectively. The final one was a brilliant gold that flew in complex series of twists and twirls before erupting into a dragon breathing a gust of 'fire' sparks into the sky.

"Which one catches your eye?" Kaji asked from behind her. Korra turned back to her, almost bashful at her fascination with such small things. "I'm getting one for myself, but it would be selfish and rude not to ask which one you would like."

"The lemur is adorable," Korra admitted, scratching the back of her head and avoiding eye contact. Kaji let out a soft laugh, not to make fun of Korra, just a happy sound. Korra smiled back. Somewhere along the strange turn of events that the trip had consisted of, Korra had come to truly enjoy being with the other girl. It was becoming harder and harder to rationalize keeping her at a distance, both figuratively and literally.

"How much for the lemur and dragon?" Kaji called to the peddler.

"All prices half off for the celebration," the man replied. Kaji let a few small coins slip from her fingers into his crinkled hands. He handed her two small sticks, one with a white tip and the other a sulphuric yellow. Kaji handed the white-tipped one to Korra and held a finger of flame below the paste. The sparks caught almost instantaneously. Soon, a small lemur was flying around the small wooden stick and Korra's wrist. Kaji then lit her own and watched the dragon dance up and down her arm.

"That's amazing," Korra breathed. Her lemur looked so intricate, fizzling in and out of flips and leaps.

"Just wait until tonight," Kaji leaned into Korra's shoulder. The touch made Korra blush. "So, are you hungry?"

"Starving," Korra beamed.

She hadn't paid much attention to the olfactory marvels that filled the streets when they had first entered, but now Korra's nose was overloading with the exotic scents. Pork was being fried over jumping open flames, rice was steamed in mountains and consumed almost as quickly, and strange fruits were being cut open to reveal a myriad of colors that had no known names. Sweet smells of various sauces that were poured over the cooked meats consumed them. Korra's mouth had begun to water a long time ago. Kaji took her to one of the stalls where a man was stir frying vegetables in a large wok. The liquid he poured into an adjacent dish caused the fire to leap from the hearth into the pan and beyond. He smiled at them before directing a frazzled girl to take their order. Kaji threw out a few names that held no meaning to Korra, but had the girl scribbling frantically on a piece of notepaper. She soon returned with three platters heaped with rice and meat covered in bizarre seasonings. Kaji took them into her arms and beckoned toward a pavilion of tables with a tilt of her head.

They found a small table in the corner, one of the only ones left. It was partially hidden behind some vines cascading down the walls of the building perpendicular to them. Korra's skin rejoiced in the drop in temperature from the shade provided by the fanning leaves. Morning glories dotted the expanse of the green rope, but they remained closed as the morning was long past. Kaji set the plates down on the white round table. The center piece was able to be rotated for better selection. The firebender then moved toward Korra's side of the table and pulled out the dainty chair the Avatar had been reaching for. Korra couldn't fight the blush that overtook her at the gesture. Kaji was practically beaming. She moved back toward the little open-air restaurant to get extra plates. Korra took in the ambrosial aroma of the dishes. One was most certainly beef with some red flakes scattered over it and drenched in a light brown sauce. The second was some kind of sea creature, encased in a red hard shell and surrounded by small black beans. The final dish held two columns of seafood wrapped in a layer of seaweed and then rice. On top of the rice were piles of meat and little orange circles. Orange and brown lines of sauces intertwined over the entire thing.

Kaji returned with the plates and two sets of chopsticks. She turned the central platform so that she could reach for the first entrée. The beef dripped with succulence onto her plate. "Teriyaki," she mumbled to Korra between bites. "It isn't spicy, so don't worry about it."

Korra emulated the other girl's vigor in piling the food onto her plate. When she bit into the tender flesh, she could have moaned in the pleasure that took over her taste buds. The sauce was sweet and a little sticky. The red flakes added some kick to the meal, but Korra wasn't about to complain. Her teeth weren't able to keep up with how much she was actually inhaling. Around Kaji, Korra didn't even think twice about manners. They were truly kindred spirits when it came to the feasting arts. When the Teriyaki beef had been decimated, Kaji turned the platform to the two piles of rice, seaweed, and other ingredients that were foreign to Korra.

"This is a Fire Dragon roll, it's sushi. The inside has crab meat, avocado, and cucumber. It is wrapped in seaweed and then packed with sticky rice. On top is unagi, our sea eel, and caviar from blue tuna," Kaji listed. Korra looked at the clumps of eel and mentally pictured the tales of the Unagi inhabiting Kyoshi Island. She felt a bit queasy eating something that must have taken a battalion to take down. Kaji saw her expression and quickly amended, "Not the giant eel. These ones are smaller, much smaller."

Korra took one little slice from the neatly compressed rows. It was a curious mixture of all of the flavors one could have experienced. The sweetness of the eel and crab was contrasted with the subtle sour of the seaweed and rice. The avocado slid over Korra's tongue with a slight watery, salty complexion. The caviar was the most fun to eat, crunching the small eggs between the roof of her mouth and the top of her tongue. Kaji offered her some more of the dark brown sauce to dip the next piece. The added salt appealed to Korra and reminded her slightly of the sea prunes she used to eat in the Northern Water Tribe. Korra noticed an ignored portion of the meal and reached for the glob of green paste that held a place to the far corner of the plate. Kaji's smirk stopped her from going any further.

"What is that?" Korra inquired, poking the stuff with the tip of her eating utensils.

"Wasabi," Kaji answered. "It's really spicy, but knock yourself out if you want some."

"No thanks," Korra turned the platter so that the offending condiment was facing away from her. Kaji chuckled and sloughed off a small piece along with her own sushi bite.

They continued enjoying the meal, leaving the most complex dish for last. Korra didn't have particular trouble breaking open the shell of the enormous King crab, but Kaji was a different story. She admitted that she had never really had much of a talent in eating any crustaceans. The flesh inside was the perfect opposite of the exterior. The soft white meat practically melted along with the butter they dipped it into. The small black beans didn't hold that much flavor and served more as an addition to the black bean sauce that flavor the food.

Once their appetites were finally sated, Korra and Kaji decided to rejoin the parades. The sun was now gradually sinking down in the western skyline. With the wane of Agni's influence, two small rebellious puffs of cloud drifted lazily over their heads. If Korra looked hard enough, she could just make out the distorted shapes of very fat and fluffy sky bison within the cumulus. Focusing back to the terrestrial atmosphere, she practically jumped out of her skin as a plume of fire passed inches from her face. Kaji had apparently dragged her to one of the stages where acrobats and firebenders danced around with their flames. The performers wore vibrant colors of pink, purple, blue, gold, silver, green, and red. The flames also varied from intense red to faint yellow. At one point, a man placed a large piece of copper over his mouth and blew his fire into it. The flames that emerged from the opposite end were neon green. Korra clapped enthusiastically with the rest of the crowd.

Kaji dragged her away from one spectacle to another. One booth was a shadow puppet show of the history of firebending. The small figures of people in retrospect to the ornate dragons that flew along the pale scarlet canvas were so intricately carved in order to display every emotion and action. The infant flames held in the hands of the sun warriors were made of ribbons that flowed in the breeze created by the puppet masters beneath the stage. Another stall sold more fireworks and, since they had lost their initial ones along the way, Kaji purchased two new ones. At one point, Korra could have sworn she saw Prince Yun talking to Tenzin at one of the food stalls. She quickly ran in the opposite direction, not wanting to explain why she was being dragged through the festivities by the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. Kaji had called her paranoid but had not protested to the extra measures of caution. They soon ran along with the other people to see the dragons dance down the boulevards. The feet of the men inside made the two beasts look like large centipedes or millipedes. Korra had not noticed it from the window, but the silver dust of the scales was actually multitudes of tiny silver bells, all trilling in time with the pulsations of the cloth. Laughter was the most prevalent sound in the city. Korra couldn't help but get drawn into the infectious glee of those around her. Her hand was still tightly clasped in Kaji's sending warm vibrations through her arm. Watching the golden eyes, so normally cold and collected, shine with life and mirth was like watching the sun rise from the depths of a frozen night. Kaji too was overtaken by Korra's wonder. The fluttering in the princess' chest had only increased with the widening smile on her counterpart's face.

"What are those?!" Korra yelled over the crowd, pointing to a vendor selling what looked like giant lollipops.

"Candy apples!" Kaji exclaimed, running over to the stall. There was a large selection, ranging from brilliant green apples covered in sweet, sticky caramel to dark red ones covered in hard fudge and peanuts. Kaji opted for the simplest ones, grabbing the granny smiths, for Korra's first taste.

"Lick the stuff on top, don't bite into it until you reach the apple," Kaji instructed.

Korra obliged. The caramel was heavenly. For a moment, Korra had to wonder whether she had been transported to the Elysian reaches of the spirit world. Every lick brought a new wave of sugary goodness to her lips. She had had nothing like it. Honey was the closest thing that she could compare it to, and even then there was no comparison. Kaji smiled at her when Korra drew away from her apple to observe her progress. The fire prodigy leaned into the darker girl and licked a small droplet of sugar from the corner of Korra's mouth. The sweet mixed with the flavor of Korra's skin was even better than the apple and Kaji had to mentally stop herself from imagining the other girl naked and covered in caramel. She silently bemoaned the impossible fantasy. Korra herself was shocked at the other girl's openness. True, most of the people here didn't seem to recognize them, but it was still somewhat of a taboo to show any public affection. Kaji pulled back and winked before going back to devouring the rest of her own apple. The palatability was somewhat less impressive in comparison to her lover's taste.

Fireflies were starting to rise in the sky, haling twilight's approach. Korra hadn't even noticed the time slipping by. The auroral colors of the evening dusk seemed more like the dawning of the life of the city. Even with the sun's gradual absence from their corner of the world, the day was not yet done. Kaji started to run through the masses of people. Korra frantically clung to her, fearing that, were their link severed, she would be lost forever in the swell of bodies. Kaji held on firmly and refused to let her go.

They turned into an alley to avoid the swarming people, gathering around the central market place. The alley was dark and secluded, without a soul inhabitant. Korra was about to ask what exactly Kaji was doing when the girl let go of her hand and jumped onto a chain-link fence. Kaji pulled herself up and then balanced on the curves of her feet. She leaped for one of the close windowsills of a building. Her hands barely caught onto it. The firebender pulled herself up until she was able to grab a hold of the roof support. Kaji looked down at the stunned Avatar beneath her and waved for her to follow. Korra, now in a competitive and playful mood, emulated Kaji's acrobatics perfectly, latching onto a roof support next to Kaji's. Together they swung up onto the red tiles, scrambling to get a hold before either slipped from the height.

Kaji took Korra's hand once more and began to run along the sloping ceilings of the houses. The buildings were fairly close together so they were able to launch themselves from roof to roof with fire jets from their feet. Kaji pulled her wild hair back into a casual ponytail to keep it from rushing into her eyes with the breeze. Korra tried in vain not to be distracted by the pale expanse of Kaji's neck that had been uncovered when the ebony curtain had been drawn from it.

They finally came to the outermost ring of the city. The stone walls of the houses seemed to merge with the very face of the cliffs that encircled them. Kaji didn't stop before the monoliths of rock jutting before them. Instead, she propelled herself toward them, cerulean fire erupting from the soles of her feet, and took a mighty leap. Her hand caught an outcropping of rock a second before gravity began working against her. Korra followed, if only because she was concerned for the safety of the insane girl. Together, they scaled the grey stone. Kaji moved in a straight path, not even slowing when the curve of the volcano made the footholds more precarious. Korra diligently watched the firebender's motions, every rock she took a hold of and how her body merged with the environment. The loss of light didn't help her any as she searched for stable areas to grab. Kaji finally pulled over the lip of the cliff. Korra hadn't even dared look up or down to notice where exactly they were. Now she saw that they had scaled halfway up the crater walls. A small overhang led to the mouth of a tiny cavern. Kaji was lying down, sprawled and breathless, on the craggily little piece of rock jutting over hundreds of feet of nothingness. Korra wasn't one to be afraid of heights, but without a fan or some kind of flying creature or apparatus to use, she kept a safe distance from the ledge.

A loud bang went off in the distance. Kaji's head shot up just in time to see the myriads of bright purple lights erupt from the sky, now black with the exception of a few stars. The smoke that was left after the firework was soon blotted out by three more miniature explosions. The Fire Nation sigil hung in the sky in a portrait of black, red, and yellow fire. It too dissipated to be followed by a series of smaller pops and blue sparks. A whistling announced the release of a rather large explosive. Kaji moved to sit next to Korra, their shoulders barely brushing, just as a fiery dragon made of silver made its entrance into the atmosphere. The lights of the entire city had been distinguished, plunging the earth below into an abyss of darkness. However the sky was alive with even more colors than Korra had ever seen. Her head slowly lowered to rest against the taller girl's shoulder. Kaji's own head rested atop Korra's. Their hands were entwined and resting contently between their laps. A flower, perhaps a fire lily, fizzled out above them. Then it was a glowing golden orb, brighter than the sun itself, spun into the world. The city below also flashed with the conjoined fire of the benders below. Kaji and Korra let loose a secret burst of their own. The icy blue and raging golden red flew into the sky, unnoticed among those below, but not quite lost. The fireworks continued, but Korra's attention was taken up by the way Kaji's face was lit up in different hues each time a bang went off above them. Their lips met without any words spoken. The closeness and beauty of the night overtook their senses. The fireworks kept on for hours, depicting fiery phoenixes and beautiful landscapes the likes of which were indescribable.

At some point, after the moon was well up in the sky and the festival had died down like the embers of a great bonfire, Kaji got up and took Korra by the waist. They entered the small cavern, Kaji lighting their way. Steps led down into the mountain, winding for what seemed like an eternity. They walked for a good hour or so before turning a corner where torches lining the walls lit their way to a heavy wooden door. Kaji opened it and stepped through. Korra was not entirely surprised by the giant river of lava that she was faced with, however it was awe-inspiring. Having such a vast expanse of lethal magma under a civilian sector did not seem like the brightest idea, but Korra herself- in a past life- had ensured that there was nothing to be frightened of. Kaji waved her arms and the river parted before them, blue flames reaching as far as the ceiling of the cave protected them from the fires just beyond. Korra couldn't help but break out into a sweat anyway. The temperatures were fatally high in that section of the cave. Even the stalactites above them reached only so far before their water had evaporated and they could grow no more. They ascended some more stairs and exited a great iron door before Kaji finally exhaled and the gush of lava was heard from behind them. They continued through the winding passages.

Upon reaching the palace and finally returning to her room, Korra was certain of one thing: she did not want Kaji to leave. The magic of the cliff side and the fireworks and their kiss; it was too much. As Kaji turned to leave and find her own room, Korra's firm hand grasping her arm halted her strides. Turning, the fire prodigy saw the want brimming in the eyes of the young Avatar. Korra glanced at her bed and then back at the understanding golden orbs gazing at her. Kaji gave her a toothy grin that made Korra almost refuse her just to spite the girl. Almost.

Kaji laid her on the bed ceremoniously, this being only the second time that she had been allowed to worship her goddess. Korra's hands deftly moved up the small buttons holding Kaji's shirt together. There were only five, lining the left of her torso, but the thin golden straps that held them were hard to undo. Korra had to forcibly stop the compulsion to rip the shirt apart. Kaji was busy removing Korra's boots and socks. The lacing was quickly unraveled and both items fell, discarded, to the floor. Korra finally was successful with the final button. The shirt was tossed by the boots.

"Will they hear?" Korra asked, the sudden epiphany making her stomach drop to her bare feet.

"Let them," Kaji moved toward Korra's pants, slipping her fingers below the waistline. Korra moaned at the cool fingers rubbing against her flushed skin. Her pants were added to the forgotten pile of clothing.

"Y-you know they can't find out, ahh!" Korra managed to say before Kaji bit into her inner thigh. All thoughts evaporated form her mind as Kaji's lips sucked on the bulging muscle of Korra's leg.

Korra's hands wound their way to Kaji's hair, tugging it free from the hair-band that was holding it. The strands cascaded around the princess' shoulders, hiding her face and her actions from her lover. Korra kept massaging Kaji's scalp as she moved slowly up along Korra's leg. Just before reaching the conjunction of Korra's thighs, Kaji moved in an outward arch so that she was winding around the Avatar's incredibly wet entrance. Korra's hands moved down to Kaji's shoulders as they came in reach. Kaji licked and kissed her way up along Korra's centerline, taking a particularly long time dipping into her bellybutton. Violent tremors wracked their way through Korra's body making her hips buck into Kaji's body. Strong hands held her down. Kaji's hands were pulling the hem of Korra's tank top up as she continued on her trail up her lover's body. Korra tried to take it from her and shove it over her head but Kaji refused to speed up any more. Korra's indignant whimper turned into a pleasured hiss as Kaji's hands grazed the valley between her breasts. The skin was heating up to the same temperature as the magma dwelling beneath them. The shirt finally fell along with the other articles of clothing. Korra was now only in her underwear. Kaji lifted her back so that she could remove the strap of her bra. Korra propped herself on shaky elbows to help her. The air was humid so the exposed skin felt only a minimal change after the fabric had been removed. Korra waited with anticipation as Kaji came up to straddle her hips and get the best viewpoint of Korra's body. Her hands moved up to caress Korra's cheeks, then her neck, and finally up to the taught nipples, standing out slightly darker against Korra's skin. The moonlight spilling from the uncovered window painted the room and its occupants in varying shades of grey. Kaji almost regretted not being able to discern the flush beneath the supple skin beneath her. It was only a momentary thought. Her lips crashed into Korra's, almost black with the blood rushing under them. Korra groaned as Kaji's weight pressed against her sensitive naval and her pelvic bone brushed against her lower abdomen. The feeling of Kaji's tongue, sliding into her mouth, was heavenly. Korra almost bit her again when she felt her nipples being squeezed between Kaji's index fingers and thumbs. She wrapped her arms around the firebender's tight back. Her shoulder blades moved every time she pressed into Korra's breasts. Korra reveled in the way Kaji's muscles pulled and relaxed in their work of bringing her to the edge. Her core was tightening with every pinch and every peck the girl was giving her.

When Kaji finally broke their kiss for air Korra was sure she would internal combust if Kaji didn't release her. "I-I need you," she panted between gasps of breath. "Now."

"Yes love," Kaji murmured smiling. Korra's heart practically burst into flames at the last word. When Kaji's hands slipped past the line of her panties, it did.

Korra's hips bucked as Kaji slid two fingers into her opening. The sweet sensation of being filled to the brim with unbridled pleasure was almost enough to make her come there and then. Instead, Kaji slipped out before Korra had a chance. Korra's eyes darkened with the tension she now felt. She grabbed at Kaji's exposed collar, gripping it until tiny rivulets of blood ran down her arm and the other girl's chest. She wouldn't, couldn't, be made to wait and squirm for Kaji's enjoyment. Her eyes began to glow faintly with the beginning stages of her Avatar state form. Kaji saw the fragile knife's edge Korra was standing on and she was the only one who was capable of pulling her down into the depths of ecstasy. She wanted to bask in the power of the moment, but the tell-tale signs of Korra's Avatar state kept her from stalling too long. She dipped her fingers back into Korra's tight opening while her lips took in the sensitive clit above. She could feel Korra tensing around her fingers, shaking with the vibrations that were precursors to her climax. Her lips suckled to the soft flesh that of her lover's nether lips before she sank her teeth into it lightly, tasting every drop of sweat and the sweat nectar of Korra's juices. Korra felt the rush of euphoria run through her as Kaji sank into her with her fingers and her teeth. She couldn't breathe or scream. Her mouth formulated the actions but nothing escaped. She shook with the spasms that overtook her entire being, her entire body convulsing around her throbbing center. Kaji kept up with her hips as Korra rode out her orgasm. The taste of Korra filling her mouth made everything they had eaten that day taste of ashes in comparison. She took it all in, knowing that to waste a single drop would be blasphemous.

Kaji drew up to check on whether Korra had suffered some form of cardiac arrest. To her surprise, the Water Tribe girl pulled her down into a searing kiss. Kaji hadn't expected Korra to still be capable of movement after what had just happened. In her surprise, she wasn't able to resist as Korra reversed their positions and forced her onto her back on the bed. Kaji's own bra was quickly removed and discarded before Korra's hot lips surrounded her right nipple. Kaji couldn't help the scream that erupted from her larynx when Korra gently bit into her. Her hypersensitive pressure points sent electrical shocks through her a mile a second. She had not expected Korra to be willing to do that. She had always consigned herself to the reality that the Avatar would never want to pleasure her and that none of her actions would be reciprocated. And yet, there she was… there they were.

Korra felt nervous. She didn't want Kaji to sense it so she moved fast when taking the girl's breast into her mouth. Now though, the small sounds of enjoyment the firebender was eliciting were enough to embolden her. Her right hand moved to take in Kaji's other breast, not wanting to leave it unattended to. Kaji arched into her touch, her body signals begging for more. Korra loved every gasp; every whisper; every sound of love Kaji emitted. Her hands took Kaji's breasts in much the same way that Kaji's had done before. Korra needed to taste the girl underneath her. She needed to know that it wasn't some beautiful, painful dream she would wake from. Kaji's tongue against her own, her cinnamon flavored breath coursing into Korra's, was enough to secure her fears. With no more trepidation, Korra moved away from Kaji's upper body and sunk lower. The girl still had her pants on but that was quickly remedied. Her black panties were the only thing separating Korra from taking Kaji completely. She held no more delusions about her feeling for the girl. With that final act, she would be Korra's and Korra would be hers. Korra slid the underwear down Kaji's toned legs, trying not to look up into the prize she would soon have under her lips. She wanted to make Kaji scream as Kaji had made her scream, to feel the burning run through her royal veins, and to know that it was Korra who was the cause.

"I love you," Korra whispered. It was such a fragile sentence and yet it held her entire being within it. Kaji's breath caught in her throat and her eyes teared up at Korra's confession. She had just been granted the most sacred treasure in the entire universe. She would have the extraordinary opportunity to hold onto the young girl's heart along with giving her her own.

"I love you too," Kaji replied.

Korra slowly slid into Kaji. She never expected to feel how soft and supple Kaji felt around her. The finest silks in the world could not hold a light to the tactile feeling brought about by the slight tightening and relaxing of Kaji's core muscles. Korra followed the rhythm of the pulses of Kaji's body. When Kaji tightened and lifted into her, Korra pressed in as far as she could go. As they both relaxed, Korra stared in wonder at her fingers, wet with Kaji's essence. She dipped down into Kaji's folds again, eliciting a brief cry of pleasure. Korra moved her legs so that she had a secure base and thrust her hips in sync with her fingers. Kaji gasped at the sudden intensity, clawing blindly for something to hold onto lest she lose herself in the river of ecstasy before her. Korra pushed in a few more times before she felt the undeniable clench of Kaji's muscles that signified the oncoming waves of gratification. Kaji couldn't remember when she felt such heat pulsating through her. The friction she felt within her lower abdomen spilled through into her organs and cells. The very fibers that held her together were threatening to unravel as she bit her lip to keep from screaming to high heaven. Korra felt her own heat rise as Kaji's shaking subsided. Kaji went limp in her arms, thoroughly spent and still in the aftershocks of Korra's love. Korra bashfully lay down on top of her and licked the cum off of her fingers. Her eyelids felt leaden and drooped as the minutes ticked by. The two girls fell asleep in each other's arms as the moon continued to shine from outside their window; the room and its occupants painted in varying shades of grey.

**P.S. Another one, it hasn't even been two chapters since the last lemon. What can i say, it's late and I'm an overly horny teen with nothing to do but write. Scratch that comment, it makes me sound pathetic. Anyway, please review! And if anyone can tell me why my word says 'teared' in 'teared up' is allegedly spelled wrong, I will be forever greatful because red underlines annoy me. :) See you in the near future hopefully.**


	8. Journey Back

**A/N: Wow, this chapter took me forever. I am so sorry, I apologize profusely, and I hope that you will forgive me for not updating in forever. Same excuses apply really. Anyway, please review because reviews make me happy.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the voices in my head that give me good ideas for writing. Well, really it's just my voice mentally thinking up plot lines. **

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"How can you trust her? She is of Azula's blood! Need I remind you of the crimes committed by that woman?" Katara bit out.

"Mother please," Tenzin stepped forward. Up until that point, he had not moved, much less said anything. "In this case, Crown Princess, because that is what she is," he cut off the woman's protests before they came forth from her lips, "has the right. There are no grounds on which the crown can be denied to her."

"I will agree… with one ultimatum," Katara continued adamantly. "The girl shall come to Republic City, where I will be staying for the duration of three months. There, she will be taught the manner of running a state by the Council and be supervised by me."

Inzei sighed and rubbed his temples. Having Katara teach Kaji was not an adverse notion. If the girl was truthful about her knowledge, and he did not doubt she was, then he had nothing to keep her. Having Master Katara's assent in Kaji's coronation was also something he desperately needed. Gravely he nodded, first at the young girl, then at the wise old woman.

A loud bang went off in the distance. Kaji's head shot up just in time to see the myriads of bright purple lights erupt from the sky, now black with the exception of a few stars. The smoke that was left after the firework was soon blotted out by three more miniature explosions. The Fire Nation sigil hung in the sky in a portrait of black, red, and yellow fire. Korra's head slowly lowered to rest against the taller girl's shoulder. Kaji's own head rested atop Korra's. Their hands were entwined and resting contently between their laps.

"I love you," Korra whispered.

"I love you too," Kaji replied.

_I love you too,_ Korra replayed in her mind. Her lungs constricted until she could barely gasp a breath. Her heart pounded the blood into her ears, leaving nothing but its drumming in her head. Four simple words, and yet, they were so powerful as to make her legs shaky and weak. No one had ever said that before, at least not with that connotation. Just remembering the sincerity that shown in Kaji's molten gold eyes as she said it, her lips moving to formulate the words so supple in the faint light, and the way she held Korra tightly to reassure her that she was there.

Kaji had been gone in the morning, whisked away by the urgency of the secret they had to keep. Korra couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of loneliness. Still, she knew it had been real-the scent of cinnamon and jasmine flowers that still lingered in her sheets were a dead give-away. It was the final morning of their stay in the Fire Nation. The zeppelins would be ready to take off in the waning hours of the afternoon. Korra stretched her arms into the sky before finding her clothes, still strewn haphazardly on the floor from the previous night, and putting them on. Korra wasn't particular about washing the festival's events from her mind so she didn't mind not washing her clothes just yet. There would be plenty of time for chores when they got back to Republic City. Now that Kaji was coming too, the prospect of seeing the city again didn't seem quite so daunting.

It had been about six hours since then. Korra had practically packed everything in the span of half an hour. No one ever said anything about organization after all. She found herself sitting at the window like the day before. The city was much more peaceful. Korra chuckled internally at the thought of all of the people recuperating from the long day of walking around and the long night of drinks. She silently wondered whether getting drunk on Kaji counted. _Ugh, I am getting way too 'hopeless romantic' about this_ she admonished. The smile never died from her lips.

"Korra, we are going to head down to the throne room where everyone is getting together before the departure," Pema called.

"Coming," Korra shot up from her hunched position and walked briskly to the nonbender standing in the doorway. Pema exchanged a warm glance with the Avatar and they both casually strutted to the throne room. Korra looked at the now familiar vases forlornly, wondering if she would ever have to navigate her way through the winding maze of the palace by their intricate designs.

The double doors opened on silent hinges as they always did, floating on air despite their titanic mass. Inside, a congregation of people was already waiting for them. Ikki and Jinora had Meelo at bay by hanging him, laughing like a maniac, upside down from his feet. Pema gave them a look and the boy was released. Instead of the expected explosion of activity that usually ensued, Meelo simply tottered over to Pema and grabbed the side of her dress. Tenzin walked up to his wife and placed a loving kiss on her forehead before handing over baby Rohan. Pema took him gently into her arms.

Prince Yun stood awkwardly to the side of everyone, preferring the least amount of attention directed to him. Inzei and Kaji were deep in conversation toward the fore of the room, closest to the throne. Korra ran her eyes longingly over the girl, wishing she could run into her arms and feel as she did last night. Unfortunately that was currently impossible due to the extra presences within the room. Inzei came to wish them a farewell and a safe trip back. Even a tired looking Iroh showed up at the last minute to say goodbye. His eyes kept flicking warily at the new Crown Princess, not quite sure how he should approach her. Kaji gave him a firm handshake before uttering a few pleasantries to put him at ease. His large shoulders relaxed a bit underneath his military jacket. Despite the stress of the Agni Kai, Iroh looked surprisingly- or maybe not that surprisingly- happy to have been removed from the line of succession.

Master Katara was the last to show, coming only a few minutes before their escort came. Five muscular servants laden with all of the luggage from their respective rooms were waiting by the door. Korra was about to insist that she was capable of carrying her own things, but the request would only have been waved off. It was simply the way things were done there. Katara came to walk beside her, linking their arms despite the rather large difference in stature. Kaji inwardly rolled her eyes from behind them. She hadn't been planning on getting too close to Korra under the scrutiny of their peers, but the Water Tribe witch was taking things way out of proportion.

The Sato-mobiles, renamed automobiles in the Fire Nation, were waiting by the large entrance. Their shiny brass metal knobs and rims gleamed brightly in the orange of the western sun. The drivers patiently waited: some leaning against the long hoods, others already in position behind the wheel. The bags were neatly packed into the rear trunks in accordance to who would be in which vehicle so as to keep things together. Korra silently wondered how they could tell then remembered that they probably based it off of the rooms. She gave the royal palace one more glance; tracing all of the curves and contours of the white walls, red roofs, and golden trimmings and beams. It really was a flame gleaming to life under the warm embrace of Agni. The long shadows stretched further to the east as they began their journey into the city and then past into the rocky ledges of the volcano. Korra couldn't help but replay the events of the previous weeks as the scenery flashed by. The pavement melded together, shades of her and Kaji running through throngs of people and dancing dragons passing with it. The buildings blurred together as one mass of timber and plaster just as the sounds and smells of the festival had. Most of all, the wind rushed through her hair just as it had on that dark ledge overlooking the fireworks bursting into a myriad of sparks.

Kaji had been placed into a separate automobile, but she was one with Korra's reflections. The city had not been her home for four years and yet, the red string of destiny seemed to be perpetually pulling her there. She was not frightened of leaving but the apprehension was still there. It was the breath before taking the plunge from an undefined height and her chi was buzzing with the prospect of how hard the impact would be when she came to the bottom.

They were on the exterior of the volcano. The road wound its way around like a giant serpent carved into the great mountainside. Korra could see the waves in the harbor, then they were lost to be replaced with forest, then the tiny airship landing platform was visible, until finally her eyes focused back onto the sea. As they descended, Korra could almost taste the salt air on her tongue and feel the slight spray of water breaking high over the rocks below.

Two large blimps were awaiting them at their destination. Their original rustic red zeppelin Korra had arrived in, with its yellow airbending sigil, was last in the row. The other was a pale white with the blue waves that symbolized the Water Tribes and was rising straight ahead of them in all of its grandeur. Korra couldn't help but wonder how her parents were doing. It seemed like eons since she had set foot in the deep snowfalls of the village where she had been born. It didn't even feel real, as though it had all been a dream or some manifestation of her imagination. There was no time for such thinking however, as an argument had just broken out from the group of passengers already assembled before the airships. Korra stepped forth from her, now parked, transport. In front of her, a red-faced Yun was glaring daggers at a nonchalant Kaji whilst also arguing with a resolute Katara.

"But why do I have to move into the other passenger room? The Avatar could stay with the Airbender ship and the Fire Princess can have the spare," Korra came into hearing distance of the boy's petulant whine.

"I am not making this a subject of discussion Yun," Katara answered patiently. "I have requested the presence of Princess Kaji and, as such, am responsible for her. I will not be having our guest sleeping in a small bunk room. As for Avatar Korra, she is my greatest pupil and I will have her aboard my ship. Now, you can choose to move to the bunk room and grumbled about it all you want, or you can trade with Korra for her room in the Republic City ship. They will be more than willing to return you to the Northern Water Tribe as soon as we have disembarked."

The Prince was growing visibly more enraged with each passing moment. "I will not be treated like this. I am the Chief's son!"

"And you will obey me. Your father was the one who expressly told you to listen to every word I say," Master Katara did not lose a beat.

Grumbling, the young prince instructed the young man carrying his bags to place them in his new room aboard the Republic City airship. Kaji sighed and motioned for her own luggage to be taken up the gangplank to the blue zeppelin. Korra felt bad about making her chauffer take the large suitcase she owned up all of the stairs but Katara was beckoning to her. She complied like the good pupil that she was.

"Yes master Katara?" Korra asked, a little apprehensively. She wanted to avoid being talked to in the same tone that the waterbending master used for the insolent Prince.

"Don't worry child. I won't bite you," the old woman chuckled. "I wanted to walk up with you. I am getting old despite my best efforts, and require some assistance."

Korra beamed at being able to help Katara, in any way possible. She tucked her arm gently around the woman's fragile frame. The furs that seemed to be the only outfit she ever dawned on were a little scratchy against Korra's bare skin. If she thought hard enough, she could almost replace the sensation with Kaji's scraping fingernails as she gently traced them over Korra's back when they- Korra stopped herself before her heart failed her and her knees buckled. They reached the doorway leading into the ship.

The inside was furnished like the inside of a Water Tribe house. The carpets were made of the finest white fur, sinking in with each step one took even if it was with the barest of pressures. The sofas that lined the living compartment were also hides, though they had been smoothed of their hair, and were earthly browns and beiges. The walls were painted to match the sky on a cloudless winter day: the softest hues of blue almost white. There was a large window, almost identical to the one on the airbender airship, overlooking the ground below. Most of the cars had left, probably making their way back up the volcano.

Korra turned around to the small corridor leading back into the interior of the blimp. Kaji was making her way to the first door to the left side. She gently twisted the knob and let herself into the room. It was spacious, when considering that there was very little living space when it came to that particular mode of transportation. The bed was covered in furs of varying colors and thicknesses. The firebender flipped through about half of them before she took them into her arms and carried them into the closet embedded into the wall perpendicular to the glass window that covered the left side of the room. The rest of the furs lay untouched. Kaji placed her bags, all four behemoth sized suitcases that had been piled by the bed, and repositioned them by the now closed closet. Inspecting her handy-work and finding it acceptable, she turned to return to the living quarters and scrounge up some food. It was drawing near dinnertime anyway. Seeing that a certain someone had gone into her room and another certain waterbender was not around, Kaji quickly amended her trajectory to take in one more stop.

Korra turned opposite of Kaji and took the first room to her right. It was the perfect size and shape of the one Korra had occupied during her Avatar training in the Northern Water Tribe. The walls were a matching color to the rest of the interior of the ship, which was a nice change to the nerve-grating vermillion that had surrounded her in the palace. She flopped onto her bed and took in the musky smells of the pelts surrounding her. She could close her eyes and imagine Naga placing her huge head against her lap and giving her a loving lick. Korra couldn't help the excited butterflies in her stomach when she thought of introducing her best friends, Bolin included in her musings, to Kaji and vice versa. Bolin would probably have a real shock if he tried to flirt with the Crown Princess and realizing that she was with Korra. _But he can't ever know, _she added wistfully. A knock on her door stopped her fantasizing.

"Yes," came the muffled reply from under the pile of skins she had wrapped herself in. She couldn't see who her visitor was, but both other residents were welcome.

"…" silence filled the room. Korra began to wonder if she had simply imagined the noise. A shuffling of feet affirmed that she had indeed heard someone.

"Who is it?" Korra asked. She tried to disentangle herself from the sheets with little success. In fact, it felt like she had gotten herself even more entangled.

A pressure suddenly pressed itself against the trapped Avatar. Korra let out an undignified yelp of surprise when the trap of blankets closed in over her and tightened around her waist. She began waving her arms-as much as she could wave them in her position- trying to knock off whatever it was that had been launched at her. Soft chuckles sounded from beyond her prison, somewhere near her stomach. _Well, the mystery of what this thing is has been solved,_ Korra exasperatedly sighed in her head.

"Kaji, get off and help me out of these blankets," Korra shouted. She could feel the other girl shaking with her suppressed laughter. A small smile cracked through Korra's annoyed façade.

It took a few seconds for Kaji to find an opening in the mound of furs that held her lover. Korra's eyes snapped shut as a flood of light filtered through when Kaji finally removed a bundle of the pelts. It was soon blotted out when Kaji stuck her head in and captured Korra's lips in a kiss. It was gentle, somewhat hesitant, but grew as Korra pushed herself into it. Her hands, so dark in the dim covering of the bed sheets, cupped the pale flesh of Kaji's cheeks. Her touch caused a deep blush to filter into the white skin, burning with the fire of Kaji's internal sun.

They broke apart as they always did, gasping for air. Kaji quickly looked over her shoulder, checking that no one had seen their small display of affection. Korra inwardly groaned at having to suppress all of her urges for the sake of keeping their secret. Kaji sensed her irritation and sympathetically drew a finger over Korra's flushed lips. Korra couldn't help herself and took a loving nip at the digit. Kaji quickly retracted it and Korra's teeth lightly clinked together.

"We are preparing to take off," the voice of the captain sounded over the intercom system. Kaji gave Korra one last passionate glance before moving off of the bed and out into the living quarters. She had seen the flying ships take off many time before but it never ceased to amaze her. She rested her hands against the rail that ran around the interior of the glass, separating her and the window by mere inches. The ground began to gradually move away as the ropes were cut and the balloon was freed to drift into the heavens.

"Princess Kaji," Katara's slippery voice came from behind her. Kaji immediately changed her small content smile to a thin line of nonchalance.

"Master Katara."

"Have you ever travelled by zeppelin before?" the white-haired woman had moved to Kaji's right side. Her gnarled old fingers gripped the railing next to Kaji's delicate ones, unmarred by age.

"Yes, a few times," Kaji answered evenly. Her pupils slowly slid to the corners of her eyes but immediately returned to their forward position when she saw Katara's own sea blue irises focused on her. She would not give the woman the satisfaction of knowing that she was unnerved by those piercing orbs.

"Yes, I do believe that your grandmother had an affinity for them. Though she did prefer them as vessels used for military purposes over simple transportation."

"…" Kaji stayed as still as was possible without ceasing to breathe. The old waterbender wanted to unnerve her, to make her angry. She would not play that game, not yet.

"Of course you would know that too. I apologize, you must be finding the ramblings of an old woman to be quite dull," Katara turned to face the outside, reflected through the clear shield before her. The young firebender was still in her peripheral. The stoic face and focused eyes, glimmering in the light that spilled over them, gave away nothing of the girl's thoughts. It infuriated the master bender how alike Kaji was to Azula, in appearance and manner of conduct.

"I was taught to take into consideration the words of my elders for they hold knowledge that I may not have," Kaji finally answered evenly.

"That is a good philosophy, but take care not to waste your time listening to every one of them or you may become lost. Was it Azula who taught you that as well?" Katara continued prodding. She wanted to discover as much about this new 'heir' as she could.

"No. It was her uncle actually, Iroh the first. I found a scroll of his sayings tucked away in one of her drawers. It was the first saying."

Katara's eyes widened ever so slightly in shock. She had always remembered that Azula had held such contempt for the old General. To discover that she had held onto a scroll of his, with some of his thoughts and ideals, was greatly surprising.

Kaji watched Master Katara's face intently. She quickly caught the dilation of the pupils and increasing of eye diameter, the crinkling of the grooves and wrinkles, and the ever so small deepening frown. She had to fight to keep the smirk creeping over her own face. The old woman had bought her lie hook, line, and sinker. It was almost sad how easily the waterbender was able to be manipulated. Of course Princess Azula would never have kept any of her uncle's writings. Kaji and she held an equal dislike of the fat, tea-loving bastard, but Katara didn't need to know that. All the old woman had to know was the illusion that Kaji was willing to reform from the teachings of her grandmother through others.

They were interrupted by Korra's entrance into the room. Kaji gave Master Katara one more smile, reflecting all of the warmth and sweetness she could muster without it turning into a sour smirk, before leaving the railing and the sky beyond for the confines of the airship. An assortment of fruits had been laid out for them on a small table in the far right corner of the room. She matched Korra's direction to it and they sat down to have a snack before they were to be called for dinner. Master Katara, ever the vigilant one, made sure to join them and sit between her favorite student and other occupant whom she did not trust at all.

Describing the trip as awkward was a complete understatement. By the time Korra took her first shaky step into the familiar setting of Air Temple Island, her nerves were so frazzled she thought that she would be able to bend lightening from the ends. She had been happy at first- to be sharing the space with two of her most beloved people- but had soon come to the realization that putting Katara and Kaji in any kind of proximity within a mile of each other was like putting two vicious komodo-rhinos in a pen together. Katara had not stopped with her remarks, ever inferring derogatory topics about Azula in hopes of fraying Kaji's stoicism. Kaji herself had submerged herself into her subconscious before the evening of the first day in the air and even Korra hadn't been able to break through the icy front. Korra desperately longed for more stolen moments like the one before they had ascended into the clouds, but Master Katara was practically joined at the hip to her. Not to mention that the one time she had succeeded in sneaking into Kaji's room after everyone was asleep, she had been sent away with an annoyed grumble from the disheveled firebender. In summation, Korra was miserable and ready for a nice long bath.

Yet, multiple priorities kept Korra from immediately seeking the solace of the steamy water rushing over her skin. Two priorities to be exact: one very white, fluffy, and friendly while the other was simply friendly. Naga gave one warning bark before tackling the Avatar to the ground. Korra half-heartedly tried to keep the wet kisses at bay, bitterly thinking that at least someone was willing to give them. Naga was soon pushed to the side by an ecstatic Bolin; the earthbending boy gave her a softer hug than her huge polar bear-dog. His jade eyes glistened with unbridled happiness and Korra had to mentally check that she had in fact only been gone for a little over a week instead of years.

Someone behind them cleared their throat ever so slightly. Bolin and Korra bought turned to see Master Katara beaming at them. "And who might this young man be?"

"This is Bolin," Korra replied gleefully. She really had missed her friend too. "Bolin, this is Master Katara."

"Nice to meet you Master," Bolin gave a polite bow which earned him an even larger smile.

"I do believe that you are one of the 'Fire Ferrets' I have been told about by my pupil," it was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Bolin replied excitedly. Korra couldn't help but giggle as he puffed out his chest and stretched his back to gain a half-inch in height. "I'm the best earthbender in the whole tournament."

Katara let out a chuckle of her own at that. "I am sure that you are."

Korra, still sitting on the dusty floor where she had landed after the assault, looked over her shoulder at the gangplank. The top was hidden in shadows since the sun was behind them, setting to the west. Two booted legs were appearing from under the awning that covered everything in darkness. Bolin noticed his friend's diverted attention and also turned to the newcomer. He was slightly confused, thinking that it was Iroh, when it became obvious that the silhouette was too small to be the Prince. His eyes widened as a gorgeous girl came into view. Her hair was as black as the midnight sky during a storm. Her eyes were the most piercing gold that he had ever seen, nothing like the bronze and amber of most firebenders he had met, but royal gold. Her cheekbones were well defined and set high, small shades playing along where her hair blew over her face in the slight breeze. Her lips were redder than any rose he had ever given to any girl in the myriads of bouquets he had made. The armor she wore was old fashioned, heavy metal plates cascading down her chest until they ended just below her ribcage. The lines of metal that rimmed the dark black were a match to her eyes. The belt held the fiery three pronged flame of the Fire Nation just like the thin pointed crown resting in the professional topknot sticking out behind her head. She walked with the graceful gate of a noble, a very high noble.

"W-Who's that?" Bolin asked in awe.

Korra was almost surprised at the sudden pang of jealousy that hit her when she caught Bolin eyeing the new arrival. _Kaji is mine and mine alone!_ Korra shook her head to remind herself that Bolin was harmless and Kaji was not someone who simply threw herself around. Her smile lowered into a private lift of the corners of her lips. "This is Crown Princess Kaji of the Fire Nation."

"Kaji, huh?" Bolin murmured, still somewhat enraptured by the beauty still making her way down to them. Then Korra's words suddenly struck him. "Wait, wasn't Iroh supposed to be Crown Prince?"

Korra shrugged before finally picking herself up and dusting herself off. Small clouds of earth drifted away from her pant-legs. "Yeah, a few things happened and, well, she is the new heir to the throne."

"Oh, okay," Bolin wasn't really one to get into politics unless there was earthbending the crap out of equalists involved. "Is Iroh okay?"

"I think he's actually kind of happy with his newfound freedom," Kaji had reached them and heard Bolin's last remark. It only took a second for her to infer what their conversation had been on. "I do not believe I have had the pleasure of meeting you."

Bolin shakily took Kaji's outstretched hand. He was quite inept at what to do when confronted with a person of royalty. Kaji quickly diffused his tension with a friendly handshake and nothing more. Korra came to stand between the two and recited the introductions while Bolin found his tongue.

"Ah, it seems that Tenzin is arriving," Master Katara observed. The rustic blimp had indeed just come into view from behind their own. Ropes were let down, soon to be secured to four prongs sticking out of the earth. The walkway lowered slowly until it hit the ground in with a muffled thud and a miniature cloud of earth rising disturbed from its slumber. Meelo, as expected, was the first to careen out. He immediately jumped on the enthusiastic polar bear-dog and they ran a few circles around the ever growing group standing below the zeppelins. Tenzin and Pema gave Master Katara a quick hug in greeting while the girls moved to Bolin and started belaying their exciting trip to the Fire Nation. They spoke so quickly that Korra had to pity the poor boy attempting to keep up.

"Wanna give me the tour before anyone notices we're gone?" Kaji whispered into Korra's ear. She nodded enthusiastically. They checked to make sure that everyone else was preoccupied with their own conversations. When the coast was clear, they grabbed their luggage and sneaked away behind a growth of brush and thin trees.

Korra led them to one of the side passages that led into the Air Temple. She silently reveled in being the guide here. Now Kaji was the one having to rely on her directions. The first stop was Korra's room where they deposited all of the bags. Neither knew where Kaji would be staying as of yet so it was the only place they could store their things until they were further informed. Once that was done, Korra immediately began making her way to the back of the building. Kaji grasped at Korra's hand, more for the contact than actually fearing that she would get lost. Korra obliged, but made sure to keep her eye out for any monks wandering around.

When they finally reached the back door, and then the world beyond it, Korra relaxed and slowed to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the fire prodigy. They leaned into each other, feeling the warmth creeping in through their touch, even though the plates of Kaji's armor made it slightly uncomfortable for Korra's delicate skin. Most of the warmth actually came from Kaji and filtered into Korra but the elated feeling of being together was experienced by both girls. The small path that led up to the training field was kept clean of weeds and other vegetation by the frequent steps of passing pupils and masters. The tower was behind their backs, its normally white walls and dark blue tile roofs were grey and black in the faded light. The evening air caused a chill to go through Kaji's frame-having spent most of the previous year in the southern regions of the Fire Nation which had ridden her of the habituation to the cold that traveling through the Earth Kingdom had granted her. Korra pushed into her more, providing a comfortable barrier between the firebender and the nipping air around them.

The training ground was now deserted and dark. The spinning obstacle course was an indiscernible mass of black and grey paper. It was alright though; Korra had no intention of wasting the fleeting moments when she had Kaji to herself on training. They could always make up an excuse to spar during the day. The small grassy glade atop the cliff side, a little farther past the training grounds, held the perfect view of the glistening lights of the city beyond the abysmal water below them. Korra took a seat a small ways away from the edge, just as a preliminary caution. Kaji came to be behind her, spreading her legs around Korra's and wrapping her arms around her waist. Korra leaned back into the girl, seeking the familiar smells of cinnamon and jasmine. Republic city shined before them, brighter than any star. A mirror image was reflected off of the dark waters unbroken as there was no breeze to rouse waves. Above them faint stars pinpricked the pitch-black sky, the sun having gone behind the horizon long ago.

"Beautiful," Kaji whispered gazing down at Korra's face. The shorter girl had rested her head against the other's breastplate, slightly off to the left, giving Kaji the perfect view of the actinic eyes that sparkled even in the absence of light.

"It is," Korra unwittingly believed that Kaji was referring to the scenery. The princess chuckled at the obliviousness Korra seemed to have when it came to her looks.

"I wasn't referring to the city."

Korra's eyes jumped to meet Kaji's. A deep blush came over her cheeks as she finally understood the compliment. Their lips met softly against each other in a peck. Kaji then placed another kiss against Korra's forehead before nestling into the brown locks that held the crisp scent of winter.

"Welcome to Republic City," Korra felt the need to say. Kaji simply smiled against her.

**P.S. Hope you enjoyed it. I really think it lagged as a chapter and I will update the next one as soon as I am able. Again please review, sorry for the boring chapter, and I promise it will get better. I haven't even gotten to the Angst part yet. :)**


	9. A Day Out

**A/N: This chapter really was just a fun filler chapter that came to me at school. I think I'm going to do maybe a series of small filler chapters taking place in Republic City before getting to the main jist of the story, just because I am a sucker for fluff and there really won't be much time for it in the Angsty chapters that will follow. If they get too boring and/or off topic, please let me know and I will resume my straight course through the plot. As always, please review, it makes me feel loved.**

**Disclaimer: I think we've gone through this enough but I OWN NOTHING! Except Kaji who is my character... and other OC's I have to invent as well.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

The training ground was now deserted and dark. The small grassy glade atop the cliff side, a little farther past it, held the perfect view of the glistening lights of the city beyond the abysmal water stretching out below. Korra took a seat a small ways away from the edge, just as a preliminary caution. Kaji came to be behind her, spreading her legs around Korra's and wrapping her arms around her waist. Korra leaned back into the girl, seeking the familiar smells of cinnamon and jasmine. Republic City shined before them, brighter than any star. A mirror image was reflected off of the dark waters, unbroken as there was no breeze to rouse waves. Above them faint stars pinpricked the pitch-black sky, the sun having gone behind the horizon long ago.

"Beautiful," Kaji whispered gazing down at Korra's face. The shorter girl had rested her head against the other's collarbone giving Kaji the perfect view of the actinic eyes that sparkled even in the absence of light.

"It is," Korra unwittingly believed that Kaji was referring to the scenery. The princess chuckled at the obliviousness Korra seemed to have when it came to her looks.

"I wasn't referring to the city."

Korra's eyes jumped to meet Kaji's. A deep blush came over her cheeks as she finally understood the compliment. Their lips met softly against each other in a peck. Kaji then placed another kiss against Korra's forehead before nestling into the brown locks that held the crisp scent of winter.

"Welcome to Republic City," Korra felt the need to say. Kaji simply smiled against her.

"Morning everyone!" an ecstatic Bolin called before sliding the door of the small kitchen open and revealing his face-splitting grin. The occupants of the room all gave their respective acknowledgements of his presence: the children squealed with glee, Pema waved and gave a tired smile, Tenzin and Kaji both gave formal nods of their heads, Master Katara returned the boy's smile, and Korra rolled her eyes at the energy permeating through him at the ungodly hour.

Korra had so been hoping that the first day back to Air Temple Island would have been one of peace and tranquility, basking in the warmth of the familiar sun and the gentle prodding of the unmistakable breezes rolling through their section of the world. Instead, she had been unceremoniously summoned at the crack of dawn because 'they had to show their new guest-who had risen with the sun as firebenders are wont to do- that the residents of the temple were also productive people.' So, for the first two dewy, foggy hours before breakfast, Korra was stuck meditating with Tenzin and Kaji. Granted, it had been nice at first. Tenzin preferred to meditate with his eyes closed, focusing all senses into bringing his chi to balance. That gave Korra the opportunity to observe her firebender's morning ritual. Her eyes couldn't help but run over Kaji's face, brow knit together in concentration at first before falling into peace. Two soft pearl eyelids hid the molten gold irises that dilated gradually with each heartbeat. Three small candles that had been placed to either side of her throbbed with each breath she took-ebbing with the inhale and growing in the exhale. They gave off small shadows that danced along the red kimono that the princess had dawned on. It was simple and flowing, irritatingly covering most of her curves, with long intricate maroon sleeves trimmed in a deep bronze. Compared to the royal outfits Kaji usually had on, it was quite simple, but it was still formal in comparison to Korra's typical sky-blue tank top and baggy pants. At first, the Avatar had wondered why her lover was wearing such concealing clothes, but then she noticed a small shiver wrack the girl's frame. It took all of her self control not to jump over the small distance separating them and cuddle close to Kaji. Instead, she transfixed her wandering gaze back into the small specks of fire on the candles. Korra soon found her own breath steadying to match the small lights. They lost their solid blue hue to be replaced with a mixture of copper and sapphire, interwoven together in tiny spirals from the wick up.

A harrumph from Korra's left startled her out of her fixation on the fire. Tenzin was looking at her with a quirked eyebrow that held the unsaid question of 'what the hell are you doing?' Korra hid her blush behind her bangs as she tucked her head into her chest. Tenzin shook his head at the strange actions of his unruly pupil, but became satisfied with her when Korra's eyes closed and she began her meditation in earnest. He did, however, notice before closing his own eyes once more, that the burning candles that swayed in the light gusts of air running through the small marble circle were joint streams of orange and blue. He mulled over their strange conflagration only for a moment before returning his focus to the internal rivers of silver energy running through him.

Korra could not for the life of her concentrate. She kept up the pretense of extreme focus in finding her center, but internally all she was able to do was think of the days that had past and those that would ensue. Days with Kaji and Bolin and Master Katara. She really didn't want to think of all of the meetings they would be going to considering Master Katara was here. Kaji would no doubt be participating in them as well. And there she was again, thinking incessantly about the firebender sitting across from her. _If only my brain would listen to me,_ Korra sighed wistfully. There was really no use in trying to gather her chi when all of her thoughts seemed intent on running rampant. The rest of the hour and forty-five minutes they spent out there had been a boring tandem of thinking about Kaji, chiding herself about thinking about Kaji, peeking at Kaji, and closing her eyes whilst screaming at her one-tracked mind.

Back at the breakfast table where Korra was currently situated, Bolin had made himself at home in the empty space next to Korra's right side. Master Katara had dutifully taken the seat to Korra's left, followed by Meelo, Jinora, Ikki, Pema-and Rowan, Tenzin, and finally Kaji before looping back to Bolin. Korra couldn't help but roll her eyes at the obvious attempt at getting closer to the new arrival. Bolin wasn't even going to give the poor girl one day before breaking out the 'charm.' In truth though, it was nice to have him back.

"So, I was wondering, since you're new here and all," Bolin started, directing his opening speech to the firebender currently taking a measured sip from her jasmine tea. "Would you like to have a day out on the town? I mean, I'm the best tour guide you can find and, just for you, I'll do it free of charge."

He waved his bushy black eyebrows to emphasize how great that was. Kaji had to catch herself before she choked on her tea as a laugh erupted from her. "Well, when you put it that way-" she teasingly retorted. "I am afraid that my schedule is not up to me. You will have to bring up your request to Master Katara."

Bolin immediately turned to face the old woman, who had just tuned into the conversation at the mention of her name. "Master Katara, can I please, please, please! steal Kaji for a day. She needs to see Republic City in all of its grandeur after all. I could never call myself a righteous citizen if I were to neglect such a prestigious duty."

The whole table burst out into giggles and chuckles at the earthbender's begging. Korra had to admit, she had never heard such an absurd and convincing argument. '_Prestigious duty' indeed._

"I don't know," Master Katara stalled. Silently, she was apprehensive about leaving the naïve young man with the sly royal. Kaji could and would probably manipulate him into something detrimental to them all, if she was anything like her grandmother and, as the saying went: the apple did not fall far from the tree.

"I can go with them to make sure Bolin doesn't get into trouble," Korra volunteered excitedly. A day out with her best friend and secret lover sounded like a great idea. And it was an excuse to not do any of the mounds of paperwork awaiting them at the City Council.

"I do not believe that would be prudent Avatar," Tenzin interjected in his smooth tone. Korra knew that he was joking in his own subtle manner. "You still have civic duties of your own to perform despite the resent peace."

"Come on Tenzin, I promise I'll do my share of baby-kissing and parading-around tomorrow. Just one day?" Korra implored. She let out the best polar bear-puppy pout she could muster and instantly witnessed Tenzin's gaze soften.

"What do you think dear," he said turning to Pema. The kind-hearted woman smiled at the pair of green and then blue eyes both turned to her. "Should we let them out of their cages for just one day?"

Pema's smile turned mischievous as she replied, "Will the city survive them?"

Another round of laughs from the majority of the room's occupants ensued. Only Kaji and Katara sat quiet. Kaji kept her walls up, but inside the tremor of anticipation ran rampant. Katara was weighing the potential danger in having Korra as well as Bolin out of her protection in the presence of Azula's descendant with the fact that the two of them would be better than just Bolin alone. In the end, she would have rather exercised her authority over the Fire Nation princess, but those hopeful faces were too much for her.

"Oh let the children have their fun Tenzin," she spoke up. "They only get to be young once and who are we to deny them?"

"Yes mother," Tenzin smiled. Korra and Bolin jumped up and gave themselves a loud high-five in victory. Not wanting to waste the fun-filled day ahead, they each grabbed one of Kaji's arms and dragged the bewildered girl out of the room and into the hallway.

They had all agreed to take Naga as transportation. The fuzzy animal was more than happy to take on the three teens. In no time, they were bounding through the narrow grey streets into the residential district of Republic City. Korra, as per usual, was holding the reins in front. Kaji was in the middle, being the least experienced of them all in the art of riding Naga. Bolin followed, happily wrapping his arms around the firebender's powerful middle.

The residential district came to an abrupt halt. Before them now stretched the shopping district. The stores there were a lot more clumped than those in the Fire Nation capital. They stacked over each other like badly placed prism pancakes, streamers hanging from the windows and metal poles like multicolored syrup enticing tourists. Bolin's tongue was rushing through all of the random facts about the area that he could think of, shouting out the words as quickly as Naga's padded feet hit the concrete path. People dove out of their way as the streets became increasingly narrower.

A few more minutes of running had them out of the smoky alleyways and into the large park that Korra had found on her own first day in the large metropolis. The river ran as clean and clear as ever, through the heart of the small grove of emerald grass and trees. Korra reigned in her polar bear-dog just beyond a small bridge that ran over the rushing water. It had been by the small bushes at the bank that she had taken three fish from the stream and flash-fried them with her firebending. Not far from there had been the podium of the Equalists.

"I thought that we'd follow some of the steps I took when I was new here," Korra said, jumping down from her perch on her pet's back. Kaji gingerly stepped down after her, head swaying a bit from the rush of running through the urban streets. She had ridden a komodo-rhino once, but that was quite lumbering and slow in comparison to the streamlined arctic animal.

"Great idea!" Bolin commented. He was the last to descend from Naga's saddle. It had been a while for him as well. Not since before they had taken down Amon, if he recalled correctly.

"I remember that I almost got arrested for illegally fishing here," Korra chuckled. It had been an eventful exposition.

"Wow, what a country bumpkin you were," Kaji teased. Korra's ears turned red at the tips. She opened her mouth to retort, but finding no argument, closed it again. Bolin and Kaji sniggered at her obvious embarrassment.

"You know what, maybe we shouldn't keep to my plan if this is how you two are going to treat me," the darker girl huffed and turned her back to the others.

"Aw, come on Korra, don't be upset. We didn't mean any harm," Bolin amicably attempted to calm his friend.

"No, you are not forgiven," Kaji sighed when she saw the stubborn way Korra's lips set into a frown after she finished her retort. It was becoming ever increasingly difficult to not push the girl to the ground and cover her with languid kisses.

"Bolin, you mentioned that you and Korra participated in some sort of sport. Perhaps we could pay a visit to your arena or training station?" Kaji moved to stand between the earthbender and the Avatar.

"Oh yeah!" Bolin's eyes brightened. "Let's go."

While the boy's back was turned, Kaji gave Korra a quick peck on the cheek, implying her apology. Korra blushed and nodded. She could never stay mad at the firebender for any extended period of time it seemed.

The glass-domed building rose up over the calm seawater that surrounded it like a giant mansion. The white walls reflected the sunlight magnificently, turning a yellow to mirror the celestial body. The façade was a large rectangular prism with an open circle within it, hanging over three arches that hid the main entrance. Rising from the center of the roof was a wide spire, set like a small chocolate candy made of the finest marble. To either side stretched two lengthy corridors which ended in twin towers that held smaller versions of the central spire. Looking past, one could see the large dome, made of illuminated jade glass held together by iron rods tapering into the middle. Two other towers poked out, marking the very back of the immense structure. The brilliant architecture and subtle symmetry that was held in the columns, arches, and spires, was enough to take Kaji's breath away. In all of her years travelling the world, she had never beheld such beauty. Golden eyes left the imposing brilliance of the marble walls to gaze at the taut muscles bunching under her grasp with each pounding step taken by the beast beneath them. Well, perhaps it wasn't the MOST beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Alright, the Pro-Bending Arena," Bolin boomed in a mock tourist-guide voice whilst waving a hand in a wide arc in emphasis.

"It is truly an amazing innovation in architecture," Kaji agreed, her eyebrows still high on her forehead in awe.

"Just wait 'til you see the inside of it," Korra whispered into her ear as she passed by. Kaji shivered from the sudden humid warmth of Korra's breath on her sensitive skin.

It became apparent that Korra had not been exaggerating when she had mentioned the inward rooms. The lobby, if that was a fit description for the cavernous room that held the reception and ticket booths, was of matching color scheme to the outside ivory. Large columns ran from the flawless floor to the ceiling that may have reached the heavens and beyond. The booths themselves, along with every last lining, carpet, upholstery, and other such additions made to accommodate crowds, were a glamorous white gold or crème. Kaji was so intent on wildly trying to take in everything all at once that the details became somewhat blurred in the process. The chandeliers hanging on chains of silver glowed faintly above them despite the early hour and the light filtering in through the ten-foot windows spanning the walls. The light yellow curtains placidly stayed in their positions in the absence of any currents of air. The sound of soft ticks and clops came at a brisk tempo toward them, increasing in volume of sound as they drew nearer.

"Excuse me," a thin man in ornate robes of light yellows and greens came from a door to the side of the large entrances leading into the actual arena. Kaji bristled at the grimace he had on his pale lips and the way he looked down at them past the overly pointed and elongated nose protruding from his pasty face. She observed him and almost smirked at what she saw. He was no doubt a staff-member, betrayed by the cheap glasses he wore and the rather stiff gait he kept. His hands were wrinkled and calloused, no doubt from the multitude of menial jobs he had done in his youth and he put on way too much powder on his cheeks to keep the sun-darkened skin an acceptable porcelain. It was cheap powder too, no doubt interlaced with lead as was wont in the lower circles. The poor man did not even know that the mask he carried to increase his perceived status was slowly poisoning him. His attire was certainly purchased to feign wealth, but the stitching suggested that it was, in fact, a cheaper imitation of low quality that needed reparations quite often. No doubt he believed them to be low-born citizen children who were easily fooled into intimidation by his airs.

"You are not allowed in here. The arena is closed for the day. Come back when there is a tournament and you have enough money to buy a ticket or enough wits to pilfer one from someone," he spit out in a biting tone.

"Excuse me?" Korra growled. Her eyes were blazing with the barely contained anger. No one talked to her that way, especially not in front of Kaji. Not that the snob of a man knew who either of them was. If he had any inclination, he probably would have prostrated himself and kissed their shoes.

"You heard me. It is policy and you little street urchins are muddying the floors."

It was obvious that they had no mud on them whatsoever considering their clothing was relatively knew and there hadn't been a drop of rain for more than a month or two. Korra was about to teach the man his meteorology by punching him in the face, but Kaji's firm hand on her shoulder pulled her out of reach. She almost inverted her hand to pelt the firebender for interrupting, but thought better of it when their eyes met. It was no use getting so flustered over one rude comment from an insignificant curator.

"We'll be taking our leave then, thank you for your service," Kaji responded, voice low and silky soft. She reached into the folds of her dark kimono and procured a small gold coin. A growling dragon curled itself around one side whilst the mural of Avatar Roku was stamped on the other side. She flicked the coin toward the man. He was startled by the sudden small piece of metal flying in his direction and fumbled somewhat in catching it. Kaji was met with a satisfying _ksht_ of one of the sleeves ripping in his flailing. The originally dim eyes turned a bright chrome as he observed the currency. His milky orbs turned to meet two piercing irises, identical in hue to the coin, narrowed in amusement. His mouth fell into a visible guffaw as the three left through the crystal doors they had come in from.

"That bastard!" Korra screamed at the top of her lungs when they were far enough down the walkway to not be overheard. Not that she would have cared if the snot had heard her. She would have ground him into mush if he started something. She just didn't want to get them in trouble with the law on Kaji's first official day in the city. "He had the nerve to talk down to _us_! And with such a stupid look on his face! And why the _hell_ did you give him money and _thank_ him for his services?! What services? The service of being an asshole and kicking us out for no reason?"

"Calm down Korra," Kaji placated the ranting girl. Were she to get any more riled up, Kaji was afraid Korra would start steaming from her ears and nostrils. "Didn't you see his face when I gave him that coin?"

Korra stopped in her tirade to think a moment. She had seen the idiot's jaw drop right before exiting the building, but she had been too upset to even begin to wonder why. "Well… yes…"

"That coin is worth a small fortune in paper currency here, perhaps seventy-nine yuan at least. Of course he'll have to convert it considering it is still Fire Nation yen at the moment," Kaji quickly tallied the approximate value of the small gold piece. One thousand yins was nothing out of her pocket really, but to that poor fool, it was probably food for half a year.

"That's…but what does that have anything to do with his reaction?" Bolin inquired. Korra didn't want to look stupid in front of her lover, but she had to admit to herself that Kaji's triumphant smile was lost on her as well.

"Honestly you two. A peasant understands the subliminal message in my actions and it is lost on you," Kaji shook her head in sarcastic incredulity. "Giving him that sum of money disproved his earlier conclusion that we were just a bunch of poor residential shenanigans. No daughter of a poor man would have any form of metallic money much less one of such a large value.

"Oh," both Bolin and Korra exclaimed as it clicked. Bolin chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, abashed at the strange girl's intricate actions. He complimented, "That was pretty smart of you."

"I try," she flashed him a toothy mischievous smile. "I couldn't let him insult the Avatar and the greatest earthbender in the world now could I?"

Bolin blushed at his self-proclaimed title while Korra burst into a fit of giggles, clutching her sides when it became too much. Kaji turned to the fluffy white creature that had been tailing after them for a while. Korra had been too angry to get onto Naga and drive coherently so she had stomped past Naga in an attempt to blow off some steam. The dark bottomless pools of liquid carbon that gazed back at her were friendly yet wary. Naga could sense a connection between the newcomer and her master and friend, but there was something else within the depths of the firebender who was curiously appraising her. A small whine escaped the polar bear-dog's throat. Korra's soothing hand, running through her fur, set the giant canine at ease.

"Well, it has been quite the eventful morning," Bolin sighed. He didn't want to admit that the pangs of early hunger were beginning to set in on him. Thankfully his stomach's rumbling was superseded by a certain water tribesman. Korra glared at the blue fabric that enveloped the extremely vocal gastric organ.

"I guess we should get a quick lunch before continuing on our tour?" Kaji offered. Her words were mocking until her own stomach matched Korra's and Bolin's in asserting itself.

"Right, I know the perfect place!" Bolin excitedly pointed toward the outlying buildings of the inner city.

The three hopped back onto Naga and Korra spurred her forward, taking Bolin's vague directions into mind as she navigated toward the noodle house he was referring to.

The building itself was located not too far from the arena, once one passed the long walkway separating the massive building from the rest of Republic City. It was probably for that reason that most of the athletes conjugated there. That and the food was downright delicious. Korra had her trepidations about the place. She remembered Bolin taking her there on their disastrous first- and only- date. Him taking Kaji there was, she hated to admit, slightly grating on her nerves. _Stop acting like a child Korra,_ she chastised herself, _it could be that he wanted noodles, or that this is his favorite restaurant._ Still, the leaden feeling in the pit of her stomach didn't go away.

Luckily, it was still a bit early for the place to be packed with people so they had a wide selection of seating. Bolin immediately struck out to his right, his eye on a certain table which was in a perfect position, not too close to the door and not too far back in case lunch-time rolled by and they were swamped. The two girls followed him, not really caring about where they would be situated.

"Awesome!" Bolin exclaimed, taking an empty booth by one of the few windows available in the place. "I never get this seat! Must be the spirits are on my side today."

He scooted over to give an empty space on the bench next to him. Korra bristled but took the seat across from him, hating herself for feeling so hostile toward her good friend. Her head swiveled to take in the monotonous street outside, burning holes into a passing car with her eyes, and mentally keeping it from actually combusting. An innocent looking Kaji slipped in to take the seat next to Korra, for all intents and purposes looking oblivious to Bolin's advances and Korra's growing frustration. Underneath the cover of the low table, however, she took Korra's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. The green monster lurking at the edge of Korra's mind was appeased by the gesture and her shoulders relaxed.

"Umm, okay, let's see what specials they've got today," Bolin never missed a beat. Korra had to hand it to the boy. No matter what happened, he always seemed to be able to keep a positive outlook on everything.

They ordered three noodle bowls. Kaji also inquired as to whether any spicy condiments were available. The girl brought a deep red oil with pepper seeds drowned in it. A small spoon stuck out of a hole in the cap placed over the small glass container. When their orders were finally brought to them, Kaji dripped only three small spoonfuls into her soup. Bolin laughed and questioned the authenticity of Kaji's Fire Nation heritage. Kaji returned his sarcasm with a dare to take in one spoonful. Korra, having had prior knowledge of the other extremely hot dishes served in the Fire Nation, egged him on. Bolin was her friend, but she wasn't going to miss an opportunity to see the poor guy make a fool of himself. One taste was enough for Bolin's entire face to turn into a tomato. His eyes teared up so much that Korra joked that he had become a waterbender. They called for a waitress to bring them a jug of water as quickly as possible. The poor girl looked shell-shocked when she came back with a large glass beaker in hand. Bolin drank it all in, leaving nothing at the bottom but a few droplets. The serving girl frantically asked whether he would be in need of a doctor. Kaji waved her off, reassuring the poor girl that Bolin was not dying of a heart attack or anything likewise as serious. A few minutes passed and Bolin's cheeks returned to their natural complexion, though they were still tinted a slight pink. They had a good laugh after that, Bolin's chuckles consisting of light coughing fits and a wide smile.

Cold laughter from behind them caused Kaji and Korra to turn their heads to assess the outside onlookers of their small prank. Three guys huddled in a corner booth wore pompous smirks and their eyes gleamed with a malicious light. One of them, a tall slender boy with slimy blonde hair and glassy greenish-grey eyes stood up and made his way over to them. Kaji instantly recognized him as the leader of the bunch. Bolin stiffened as he fell under the other man's scrutiny.

"Well, well, well," his voice was snide and cool, like liquid water. "If it isn't Bolin and the loser Fire Ferrets. I think you should change your name to the Fire Bugs 'cause you get squashed so easily in all your matches."

"Leave us alone Slater," Bolin murmured. His eyes were downcast, not wanting to give the boy an excuse to start a fight.

"What, too scared to even take a criticism? Well, you weren't much of a man anyway," 'Slater' waved his hand dismissively. His luminous eyes moved to rake over Korra and Kaji. Korra self-consciously dipped her head and avoided his gaze. Kaji simply followed him from behind her eyelashes.

"Hey Slater, did'ya see his face just now. What a loser. Can't even take a little bit of fire in his system," a fat boy with dark brown hair plastered to his doughy forehead and black eyes lumbered to stand next to his group member.

"Easy Zhui. He's not the firebender of the family. That would be his brother. Too bad big brother isn't here to help you out anymore and cover all of your failings huh Bolin?" Slater brought his face right next to Bolin's, forcing the boy to meet his eyes.

Kaji felt Korra start to shake at the mention of Bolin's older brother. It was obvious that both she and Bolin were bothered by his memory. It was neither her place nor her interest to stick her nose into that business however. Still, she would not allow these scumbags to intimidate either of her companions.

"… haven't won a single game since he left. Even the damn Avatar over there couldn't get any hits. You guys really fell through the cracks," Slater was saying. "Lucky for me and the Raging Komodo-Rhinos, I got the best firebender and waterbender in all of Republic City, hell, in the world. Ain't that right Zhui, Rokiro?"

The third member, a boy with long black hair who had kept quiet in his seat for the entirety of Slater's jibes, turned his head to give a small nod in affirmation. Kaji caught a flash of midnight blue before his eyelids closed and the back of his head was facing her again.

"How certain are you of that?" Kaji suddenly spoke up. Korra and Bolin both shot her looks as if to say 'leave it alone' but she ignored them.

Slater had only given the quiet girl closest to him a cursory glance before and he had not expected her to be the one to speak to him. "What did you say?" he put on his most menacing glare and bared his teeth. The threat was low, sharp as a blade laced with venom.

"I asked how certain you were about having the best benders in your team," the girl repeated evenly. Her eyes, originally half-lidded, opened to meet his stare, matching it in intensity and vehemence. Perhaps even surpassing him. Slater recoiled as the molten orbs bore into him. His temper flared at the weakness that was instilled in his bones with each second that passed.

He sucked in a breath to steady himself and answered in as manly a voice as he could muster, "I have no doubt in my mind."

"Good," Kaji answered in a peppy tone, almost sing-song with happiness. "I don't challenge weaklings."

"Y-you want to _challenge _us?" the fat one, Zhui, asked before bursting into a fit of booming laughter. It wasn't really laughter as much as the wheezing of an overstuffed pig and Kaji couldn't help but grimace in disgust.

"Yes," she replied evenly.

"You best be careful who you mess with little girl," Slater hissed. Having the strange girl's gaze off of him made him bold again, and anger fueled his ego. "I might just accept your request."

"Alright then. A test of fighting prowess and stealth," Kaji declared. "Meet us at the Pro-Bending Arena after dark. You have to get in without getting caught and then we'll have our match. If one of us doesn't show or gets caught before the fight, it is an automatic loss."

"You aren't really in any position to be naming times and locations to us," Slater remarked. In reality, he was a little concerned about being able to actually get past the guards with Zhui. The man was more limber than one would expect looking at him, but he was also conspicuous.

"If you don't think you can do it, I guess that is a welcome disappointment," Kaji shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

"Fuck you!" Zhui shouted. Some spittle flew from his swollen lower lip and landed on the table. Kaji slid her hand into the folds of her dress and made a spectacle of wiping it from her unblemished skin.

"Fine, after dark. We'll be waiting," Slater snarled.

"It's a date," Kaji smiled and winked. The two men left and regrouped at their table. A few hushed words were exchanged before the trio stood and left the shop.

Once they were gone, Bolin gave a heavy sigh before slumping into the plush backrest of his seat. Korra glared daggers at Kaji, silently imagining smacking the girl upside the head and inquiring as to why she had just committed them to such a stupid enterprise.

"What?" ever the innocent one, Kaji asked as though she didn't know before digging into her soup. It had turned a little cold in the duration of her little chat with the Roaring Lion-Turtles or whatever their name was.

"Why did you have to get us involved?" Korra elaborated on her stare.

"What, we can totally kick their asses," Kaji said between a mouthful of soggy pasta.

"We are going to break into a highly patrolled building in order to duke it out, very loudly mind you, with the strongest team in Pro-Bending."

"Yup. Though, in my defense, I was not aware that they were the strongest team until now."

Korra groaned at Kaji's calm attitude. "He just made a point of telling you."

"No, he said that he had the strongest firebender and earthbender on his team. I had to disagree."

"We're fucked," a miserable Bolin muttered from where he had hidden his face in his hands.

"No, we are going to prove that the Fire Ferrets are better than anyone. They may be good, but we have the Avatar, the strongest earthbender in the world- the actual one mind you- and now me. It'll be a breeze," Kaji reasoned. Two pairs of eyes looked at her like she had gone mad. Perhaps she had, it still didn't matter. "So, who wants to explain to me the rules of this pro-bending?"

Both Bolin and Korra let out exasperated huffs.

Korra had no idea how she ended up like this. Well, she had an idea. It was all the fault of that stupid, big-mouthed, gorgeous, egotistical firebender that she had fallen for. The rest of the day had been spent in teaching Kaji the basics of pro-bending and then practicing. Korra hadn't realized how sloppy she had gotten until she just barely avoided a flying disk shot at her stomach by Bolin. Kaji seemed to be enjoying herself, making everything sent her way explode into tiny pieces or erupt in a cloud of steam. Bolin had not gotten over how 'cool' Kaji's fire was until hours later- something that had nearly cost him an arm when said fire was actually flung at him.

At that present moment, however, Korra had to concentrate in not slipping off the edge of the slippery glass that led into the arena. Their entrance plan was somewhat formulated around Amon's escape route from three months ago. It involved a lot less exploding and fighting and chi-blocking with the rather noticeable absence of airships and electricity, but the basics were similar. The steel rope Korra had bended to adhere to the iron rafters was taut with the added weight of the three people scaling the ledge. Kaji was directly behind her, keeping a steady pace and looking out for any guards that might be strolling around the stands with a fancy for looking up at the sky. Bolin followed, performing the same checks. The giant lantern that hung from the center of the ceiling had been extinguished for once, so there was no blinding illumination to keep them hidden. That meant that they were thoroughly exposed to anyone curious enough to notice them.

Again Korra inwardly questioned her affection for the girl behind her. The rope snagged a bit causing them all to take a frightening lurch back before they were caught again. Bolin gave a small nervous chuckle before he started to hyperventilate. Korra struck another rope from the iron chords she had stored in her pockets. They had nearly reached the zenith.

"Wait, stop here," Kaji called from behind her. Korra gave her a confused look but complied. "It'll be easier to keep the glass we're going to cut to get in from actually falling into the stands and making noise."

Korra nodded and looped a rope around to Bolin so that he could pull himself to stand by them. Kaji kneeled down, touching the large glass pane they were standing on. She beckoned that Bolin was needed, so he put on his bravest face and went down next to her. Korra made sure to keep the ropes secure and resisted the urge to shiver in the strong winds that blew at that altitude. The sound of fire against glass drew her back to where Kaji was cutting a circle, just large enough for them to fit through, into the large window. Bolin's fingers were splayed over the glass, acting as suction cups to the miniscule sand particles in the glass. Korra hadn't been aware that that was actually possible, but when it came to Kaji, it was best to expect surprises. The circle complete, Bolin pulled and detached the piece of glass from its place, unveiling a small entrance. Korra secured the piece of glass with two bands of iron twining around it and connecting to the iron supports framing the sides. She then let a small strand of iron coil loop down into the darkness below them. Kaji was the first to drop down. Her hawk eyes would pick up the faintest movements, but there were none then. When a tug on the rope came, Bolin began his descent. Korra kept the coil as secure as she possibly could. The grip on the cold metal made small incisions in her hands and the little blood drops fell at a slant with the wind. The tug came and it was her turn. She checked one more time to make sure everything was fastened correctly before sliding down.

All seemed to be going well until about halfway down. The seats were still an alarming distance away from her when Korra felt it. It was the slightest shift in the rope, but it was still a shift. Her eyes flicked up to the faint outline of the rope's end. The edge had been rubbing against the glass with enough friction to actually unbind some of the bands of iron. Korra cursed the cheap product a second before the thing snapped and she was hurtling down into the arena at breakneck speed. Without a glider or a solid connection to the water surrounding the actual court, Korra had no way to avoid the oncoming ground. Even an air-scooter would not have been effective because of the manner in which the seats were situated beneath her. She had no escape.

Kaji saw the rope snap but it took her mind a second to process that Korra was actually falling. Something snapped within her as she witnessed her lover's increasing velocity and decreasing height. Kaji had no awareness of the indigo blazes that jettisoned her into the air and toward Korra's body. Her brain gave no command to her arms as they stretched to catch the smaller girl into a protective embrace. She didn't even have any knowledge of rolling into a dive as the red and blue of the pro-bending field approached form beneath them. The flames that spewed from her throat as though from the maw of a giant flying serpent were not her own, at least that she could remember. All that she knew was Korra's limp, shaking form in her arms and her feet buckling under her as they came to a safe skid across the raised platform.

When she actually found her voice, Kaji gripped the sides of Korra's face and uttered a breathless, "Safe?" She couldn't say anything else. Her throat constricted with unshed tears of fear and joy.

Korra could only nod and bury her head into Kaji shoulder. Her sobs were quiet and dry. Her tears had all been evaporated in the torrent of air rushing past her in their tumble of near-death. Not caring about anything else, Korra reached around Kaji's protective arms and grasped at the collar around the girl's neck. Kaji lowered her head in compliance. Without any further hesitation, Korra brought her lips to her firebending prodigy's. The reassuring feeling of having Kaji's taste in her mouth, of knowing that she was alive and still have the ability to run her tongue over the delicate flesh of Kaji's lower lip was enough for Korra to regain some of her senses. She broke away in order to take in a series of gulping breathes. Nothing felt better than air in one's lungs after falling form an undefined height of some hundred feet.

So lost were they in their small bubble of time and space, that neither girl noticed the new arrivals in the room. Bolin quietly cleared his throat and indicated the approaching contenders. Kaji helped Korra to regain her feet just as Slater's snide smirk came into view a few stands up from the entryway. Their descent was slow, deliberately trying to instill apprehension and fear into their opponents. The metal platform gratingly moved its way across the divide between the court and the on looking isles. Korra let go of Kaji's hand as she found her footing, wanting to face the bastard Komodo-Rhinos with her head held high.

"Ah, we didn't think you would show," Slater jeered.

"I guess that means you owe me five bucks," Zhui prodded the blonde man. Slater shoved him off, annoyed at the fat man's poking digits. "Ready to get your asses kicked?"

"Let us see how long you will last before breaking down into tears," Kaji retorted. "In the interest of time, I propose a sudden-death match."

"Done," Slater smiled.

The two teams assembled in the middle segments of the field. The red under Korra's feet was strangely comforting. It hadn't held the warmth that she felt now since before Mako left. Her thoughts were quickly pushed to the back of her mind as an earth disk whizzed past her, trying to make contact with the nimble firebender beside her. Kaji easily evaded Slater's assault without any use of her fire. She didn't want to waste it on scum like that. They could be beaten with minimal effort; she simply needed to hang back for a few moments to figure out their patterns and strategy.

Bolin sent in three disks, directed at the silent waterbender. They were cut through easily by his liquid blades. The offensive strike that ensued almost knocked him back into the section behind them. He was able to regain his balance only because Kaji stepped in and vaporized the next onslaught.

Zhui focused his attacks on the Avatar standing to the right-most side. His fire was strong, coming in swift currents that quickly began to overwhelm the watery shields Korra was putting up. His face almost broke into a smile, victory coming into inevitable view, when a blast of blue fire hit him square in the chest and landed him in the middle field of his territory. His teeth ground together as he glared at the tensed form of Kaji. Her hand was still extended in the punch she had sent his way. It quickly changed into a sweeping downward windmill block as a torrent of water came toward her. Zhui's pupils dilated at the alien hue of fire that followed the girl's fingertips. The water was harmless against such flames. They burned with such intense heat as to put the sun to shame.

Slater roared in fury at having his firebender pushed back. Zhui had been cocky, but the smug look on the stupid girl's face was too much. He sent four disks spinning her way and created sharp spikes to create a deadly array. Kaji sank into a low snake-stance as they sailed harmlessly over her. As ineffective as the attack had been, it was enough of a distraction for Rokiro to form a water whip and hit her in the chest.

Kaji hissed as the unexpected pain of the hit broke through her body. She could feel the blood running down her clothes where the water had cut the skin. Her stance had been strong enough that she had not been knocked out of the ring, but she had fallen back to the previous level. Korra was giving her a worried look, but Kaji indicated that she should focus on the match. There was no way she was losing now.

Bolin took the lowered defenses of the opposing side in their small victory to smack a rather hefty stone disc into Zhui's face. The hit itself would not have taken him, but the amount of mass that was sent tottering backwards was enough to ground him and roll him into the outermost section of the blue arena. Korra compounded the man's momentum by sending a wave of water into him. Most of it was diverted by the watrerbender, Rokiro, but the small amount that got to him, was enough to push him over the edge. The splash that resounded was enough to wake the dead. No one was worried about those particular consequences though.

Slater was furious. To have his team take the first loss was unacceptable. He synchronized his attacks with Rokiro's and they were able to push the Avatar back a section with a powerful sweep of water followed by a barrage of stone. All of the disks erupted into flecks in the wake of Kaji's blue Fire, but the impact was enough to send Korra flying. The adrenaline pumping through her ears was drowning out all coherent thought. Korra tried to center herself and keep from losing her focus. Kaji met her eyes and they nodded in unison.

Korra gathered a funnel of water, sweeping in a clockwise direction. Rokiro and Slater were busy with Bolin, trying to get him back into the second field as well. They took no notice as a stream of blue fire, spinning counterclockwise to Korra's water, filled the center of the vortex. Together, the two girls released the energy in a grand show of elemental power. Rokiro was the first to see the attack, but it was Slater who took the brunt of it. He was knocked out, sailing through the air and into the watery depths beyond the edge of the arena. Rokiro was pushed into the outer section. His grim forehead set in determination. He was just about to let out a flurry of ice daggers when two steel ropes wrapped themselves around his body and sent him falling to his teammates. Korra and Kaji barely had a moment to give each other puzzled looks before they too were floored by two chords. Bolin had a similar fate.

A bright light flashed down on them and the sound of a zeppelin hovering above them was distinguishable. Two very familiar metal boots came into Korra's field of vision just before a very gruff, very annoyed voice greeted her. "Hello Avatar Korra. It seems we are destined to meet this way."

"Hi there Lin," Korra said in her best impression of a cheerful voice. Despite the woman's curt and authoritative words, she knew that Lin Beifong was actually happy to see her. They had become quite good friends over breaking large machines and beating up people disrupting the peace. Still, the woman's love for the law was a deterring quality what with the current circumstances.

"I assume you have a brilliant explanation for this," the woman quipped.

"Yeah," Korra muttered, silently flicking her eyes to where she thought Kaji had fallen. "A really good one."

"Well, you can tell me all about it in my office. Take them," Lin ordered. Korra was picked up, not roughly since most of Lin's officers were also fond of the young Avatar. They were all escorted out of the building and into a police automobile. The soaked forms of the Raging Komodo-Rhinos were shoved into an adjacent vehicle.

Just as the doors closed, locking them into temporary darkness, Bolin turned to Korra with the biggest grin she had ever seen plastered to his face. "You kissed a girl," he remarked like a happy child.

Korra rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to unchain herself and punch him.

**P.S. I hope you liked it. :)**

**For those of you wondering, 1 yuan (Chinese) is equal to 12.67 yen(Japanese), as said by google. If it is wrong, I apologize, and blame search engines. I believe ATLA was based off of wars between the Japanese Empire and China, so I also base the continents as such, if anyone was wondering. And, as to the sadly small amount of money it turned out to be, it was based off of currency three hundred+ years ago when pennies were actually worth something. As for any other wuestions, leave them in reviews and I will gladly answer them to the best of my knowledge. **

**Review PLEASE! :)**


	10. The Beach (Part 1)

**A/N: Hello! I wrote this all today and I am thoroughly happy. I just wanted meaningless fluff. That's all. And this whole entire week has been murder! But please read and review even though this chapter has very little significance to the plot, which is coming up very soon. I may have maybe two meaningless chapters left (including part 2 of this), so please keep reading. Also, I edited this late and it may contain mistakes. If so I apologize profusely. Thank you and review!**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

A bright light flashed down on them and the sound of a zeppelin hovering above them was distinguishable. Two very familiar metal boots came into Korra's field of vision just before a very gruff, very annoyed voice greeted her. "Hello Avatar Korra. It seems we are destined to meet this way."

"Hi there Lin," Korra said in her best impression of a cheerful voice. Despite the woman's curt and authoritative words, she knew that Lin Beifong was actually happy to see her. Still, they were all escorted out of the building and into a police automobile. The soaked forms of the Raging Komodo-Rhinos were shoved into an adjacent vehicle.

Just as the doors closed, locking them into temporary darkness, Bolin turned to Korra with the biggest grin she had ever seen plastered to his face. "You kissed a girl," he remarked like a happy child.

Korra rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to unchain herself and punch him.

It was a quiet day in Republic City. The lazy water vapors hung in the air creating a thick humid blanket over the sleepy metropolis. The sun shined hazily through the density of the mists surrounding the banks of the sea and the close areas beyond. The atmosphere itself seemed to be sloping in on the residents of the Earth Kingdom's adjoining city-state. Even though it was nearing noontime, barely anyone was outside. For once, the constant stream of noises and bustling activity had given way to nothing more than a peaceful lull of silence. A stray piece of rubbish flew in a short breeze, before it was swallowed up by the heavy air permeating the city. The trash drifted down to the pavement, forgotten and discarded.

On Air Temple Island, all of the monks had been given the day off. Most of the occupants had gone to their families, who lived across the short stretch of water between the continent and the small piece of land detached from it. The tower gleamed a pale yellow, its tiles baking in the warm glow. The blades of grass in the surrounding glades stood drooping, though they kept their emerald hues. The few remaining residents of the island were strewn in the lounge on the top story. Rarely was it truly left for the family alone, and they were making sure to put it to good use. Tenzin and Pema had found two comfortable chairs around a tiny table in the center of the room. The kids were out, probably causing havoc throughout the vacant grounds but they were beyond anyone's concern for the moment. Master Katara had taken her own seat in a plush armchair by the white-washed walls that curved in a circle with the exterior of the tower. Korra and Kaji too had found their respective places. Both girls were completely exhausted and were simply basking in the light that filtered through the many open windows.

After Korra, Kaji, and Bolin's little escapade in the Pro-Bending Arena a week before, Tenzin and Katara had kept the girls swamped with work. Kaji didn't seem to mind it too much, diving into her tasks with a vigor that had Korra scratching her head. In the end, the Avatar decided to appoint the enthusiasm to an attempt at impressing Master Katara. The plan had worked somewhat; at least they had stopped their verbal sparring sessions that ended in near violence and Korra wanting to slink into the corner of the room and curl into the fetal position. Tenzin had been put in charge of her… something about 'I had to come spring you out of jail, on my knees in front of Lin, at one o'clock in the morning' or some nonsense. Korra tended to mouth off and inform him that she had never asked him to inconvenience himself so, and would have happily stayed in the prison cell- shared with Kaji much to her happiness. In the end, it was no use and she had only dug herself a larger hole, which Tenzin happily filled with piles of paperwork.

That day had been Korra's first free-day since then. The soft couch she had draped herself over was, at least as far as her addled mind could think of, the most comfortable furniture ever. The fact that Kaji had unceremoniously slumped down on top of her made the experience doubly as enjoyable. At first Tenzin, Pema, and Katara had shared raised eyebrows at Kaji's unprecedented action and Korra's seemingly complacent response, but they soon allotted it to the two girls finally having a break from their menial chores. Bolin had also come to join in on the family time, having conveniently escaped any sort of punishment by disappearing after Tenzin had sprung them. Korra and Kaji both groaned as the overly friendly earthbender threw himself between the two. The sofa had been large, but not large enough, and a certain groggy firebender found herself dumped on the floor.

"Excuse me," Kaji grumbled. Bolin shot her a slightly apologetic smile, but made no attempt to move. Korra had just been able to squirm her way out from under his beefy arm. She blew a brown lock out of her face with a huff of air.

"I'm sooooo bored guys," Bolin whined. He flipped onto his back, effectively pinning Korra underneath his other arm. The Avatar's strength had all but been expended so she made no move other than to turn her head to the side so she could breathe.

"Then go do something," Kaji stated. Her hand dragged her upper body up to lean against the plush fabric of the furniture holding her lover and new friend.

"But it's no fun to do anything alone," Bolin discarded the vague solution. Kaji rolled her eyes in such a manner that Master Katara had a mental image of a past firebender with a similar habit. She wanted to frown, yet the pure bliss that descended amongst the serenity of the afternoon refused to let her.

"Then go find someone willing to do something with you," Kaji remarked blandly. Even her sharp mind needed a day to simply dissolve into a pile of goop at the bottom of her skull.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Bolin suddenly shot up from his position of lying on the darker girl underneath him. Both Korra and Kaji couldn't suppress the dread rolling into their guts at the boy's chipper attitude. It was simply not the day for excitement or anything requiring movement. Despite that, Bolin continued undeterred, "We should go to the beach!"

"Ugh, that requires walking Bolin," Korra said, her voice muffled by the fabric of the couch.

"Come on," Bolin prodded her with his elbow. "You guys can even keep veging on the sand if you want to. It's just so dull when we have to sit around here."

"Do you understand the meaning of 'relax' Bolin?" Kaji asked, her tone dripping with concealed venom. There wasn't anything malicious about her inquiry; she simply wanted to enjoy the laid-back trend of the day.

"Alright then. But just know, I tried to reason with you two," the earthbender said before getting up and grabbing Korra and Kaji by their waists and hoisting them onto his shoulders. Two very unprofessional squawks came from the unwitting females as they were dropped onto the stairway, which Bolin had bended into a sort of stone slide, and pushed down into the spiraling lower reaches of the Airbending Temple.

"I'm going to murder him," Kaji promised as she and Korra landed in a heap of tangled limbs and matted hair.

"I'll help," came the reply.

"Oh come on. You will thank me later," Bolin slid down casually, making sure to keep out of reach of the two very pissed off girls now picking themselves up. "Now come on, get your swimsuits and let's go!"

Korra and Kaji exchanged looks. It wasn't exactly how they had planned on spending the day, but they were already down there and it really would not be worth walking all the way back up to the tower room. Kaji shrugged her shoulders and the two started making their way to the resident rooms. Kaji had been given a room not very far from Korra's, much to their delight. At first they had devised a system of visits during the evenings, but that had fallen through as neither was able to stay up very late due to the workload of the day. Still, it was a reassuring thought to Kaji that she was not far from her beloved in the strange city.

"Hey, uh," the Fire Nation princess started, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment. Her hair had been pulled into a hasty ponytail to keep the sweat from clinging to her neck.

"What is it?" Korra inquired. She always found her firebender to be quite adorable when nervous. The faint blush that turned her soft cheeks the slightest shade of pink and the way her golden eyes would find a sudden interest in the floorboards they stood on was endearing.

"I… I don't really… own a swimsuit," Kaji finally finished. Korra was taken aback by the confession. It wasn't really the lack of swimwear that struck her, rather why Kaji was so frazzled by it.

"That's okay, I have a few so you can have your pick of them," the young Avatar offered. Kaji's eyes lit up at not having to actually make such an awkward request.

"Thanks," Kaji mumbled.

"My pleasure," Korra reached up to cup Kaji's soft cheek. It was warm, fed by the girl's internal inferno. Taking a quick precautious look around, Korra stood on her toes and stole a quick peck. Kaji returned the kiss with fervor, not willing to let it go. It had been so long since their last show of affection, and even longer still since they had actually felt each other's bare flesh against wandering fingers and ravenous mouths.

"We're going to get caught," Korra mumbled from underneath the desperate lips of her lover. "Bolin already knows and it hasn't even been a week."

"I know," Kaji said, disappointed. She would burn the whole world to the ground if only to not have to hide her feelings for the girl next to her. Of course Korra probably wouldn't want that.

They entered Korra's room through her thin door. The only thing Kaji hated about her temporary home was the complete and utter lack of privacy. Honestly, how did they expect her to sneak in for a much needed love cession with her goddess when she could poke a hole in the fucking wall?! She sighed in chagrin.

"Here we are," Korra's voice came from behind a pile of blue clothing. Kaji couldn't help but wonder why no one ever seemed to change what they wore in Republic City. _Perhaps it was fashionable in the Earth Kingdom to hold a generic wardrobe?_ Korra appeared with a handful of two-piece bikinis. Kaji had to practically battle the sarcasm from erupting from her mouth as she saw the familiar hues. Blue, blue, and, wait for it, more blue.

"You take first pick since they're yours," Kaji waved her hand toward where the fabric had been laid out on Korra's bed.

"Hmm, which one, which one?" Korra mused to herself. Kaji refrained from commenting that all of them looked the same. "This one's always been really comfortable. Close your eyes while I change."

"Still?" Kaji complained. "I've been deprived of you for more than a week and I can't even see you?"

"Nope," Korra answered, her cheeks stained red.

Korra grabbed one of the swimsuits with more coverage over the top half. Kaji was about to complain and suggest one that was a little more revealing, but thought better of it when she remembered that it wouldn't just be the two of them out there. Thinking of Bolin looking at Korra caused Kaji's blood to boil. She chastised her jealous nature and tried to calm her nerves by reminding herself that Korra had displayed no signs of affection past sisterly love for the boy. It only did so much to ease the green monster within her head.

"Alright, your turn," Kaji opened her eyes at Korra's voice. She knew that staring was considered impolite, but the sight before her was pulling her gaze in with the strength of gravity. Korra's outfit was quite revealing even in its modesty. Her sun kissed skin was practically radiant over her taut abs and thighs. The blue fabric was so light that it almost looked white; a perfect contrast. Strong shoulders sloped down to firm biceps and forearms before ending in relaxed fingertips. Korra brought her arms around her stomach in an attempt to shield herself form Kaji's eyes, still transfixed by every curve and contour. The only effect the gesture had was the slightly push up the girl's breasts, both partially covered by gooseflesh at being suddenly out in the open.

"You truly are the most marvelous creature I have ever seen," Kaji was able to say after a moment of regaining her self control.

"Shut up and get dressed," Korra stuttered, her self-consciousness getting to her even with the flattering compliment. "Bolin's going to start getting ideas about what we're doing here."

"Maybe he's going to be right," Kaji said as she slinked toward Korra. The predatory glint in her metallic irises had Korra's skin tingling with electricity. She was about to ask whether it was the firebender's intentional doing, but Kaji's lips beat her to it. Korra let out a breath as her prodigy began to run her fingers across the uncovered flesh of her arms, spiraling in small circles, before reaching up to run along her clavicle.

"K-Kaji," Korra moaned as she wound her own arms around her lover, digging her nails into the shirt that still, infuriatingly, covered the firebender's skin. Kaji moved down to the dip between Korra's breasts, picking up a small stream of perspiration that had settled there.

"Maybe a little later we can find a secluded spot where no one can hear us?" Kaji prompted, running her tongue over Korra's earlobe.

" Later?" Korra parroted. Her brain felt severed from the rest of her nervous system. She was on fire while also feeling the ice cold tendrils of lightening rushing through her veins.

"Yes, for now we'll just have to play innocent, now won't we?" Kaji teased. She brought her head back a bit so that she could take in Korra's face. Her long porcelain fingers caught a stray strand of hair and tucked it lovingly behind the same ear that she had tasted seconds before. The flesh was slightly darkened from the blood pumping through Korra's frame. If Kaji focused, she could feel the hammering of the younger girl's heart against her own chest.

"You're going to have to let go of me at some point love," Kaji whispered. Korra was finally able to snap out of her trance. Her hands reluctantly unclenched, letting the crumpled fabric fall back into its natural state. She pushed herself away from Kaji's warm body ever so gently, needing the space and yet hating every second she wasn't wrapped in those arms. She closed her eyes as her lover picked up a dark blue two-piece.

"Don't be ashamed to take a peek," Kaji smirked. Korra's mind reeled at the boldness of the remark. Her eyes tightened against the temptation. Her only indications of Kaji's actions were the occasional rustling of sheets and the soft, bare footsteps that were placed gently on her floor.

"Alright, ready," Kaji informed. Korra tentatively peeked past her long dark eyelashes. Where Kaji said she was marvelous, Korra saw Kaji as divine. The white skin was practically fluorescent in the pale light filtering through the curtains surrounding the glass windows. The blue pieces clung to all the right places to leave very little to the imagination. _Not that I need it,_ Korra thought back to the night of the Fire Nation festival. The redness in her cheeks intensified and she had to shake her head in order to clear it. Kaji smiled kindly at her lover. Her shoulders shook with a small hidden chuckle before she took a hold of Korra's hand and led her out to where Bolin was no doubt waiting and thinking dirty thoughts.

"Well, don't you ladies look gorgeous today," Bolin, in dark green swim trunks, complimented when they reached the beach on the Northern side of the island. He had politely refrained from mentioning anything until they were well out of the earshot of the adults. Not that they were ones to pry, but then again, Korra was not ashamed of being a tad bit paranoid. The trek through the woods and then the climb down the cliff had been somewhat difficult to accomplish without anything to shield them from falling rocks, snagging branches, and the like. Still, having two earthbenders made everything much easier. Kaji felt a little useless, but her plan of burning the entire forest to the ground and searing a smooth path into the rock face with flames exceeding four hundred degrees was quickly vetoed by the rest of the group. So, for the rest of the trip, she had sullenly allowed the others to do the path making and such.

"Well, we're here," Korra stretched her arms over her head, basking in the embrace of the sun. Two pairs of eyes gawked at the expanse of skin that she was portraying, but the jade ones held much more innocent intentions that those of molten gold.

"Yes, we are," Kaji spoke serpent-soft.

"And we are going to have so much fun!" Bolin whooped. He took off in a direct line to the water. With a cry of wild joy, he slammed into the first wave of water. The streams of salty liquid glistened from his well sculpted body. His broad shoulders stuck above his head, bunching his prominent back muscles, Bolin dove under a particularly strong current. Coming back up, he turned and beckoned them to join him.

"Come on," Korra laughed, taking both of Kaji's hands and pulling the suddenly apprehensive firebender to the shoreline.

"Umm, I'm fine watching from the shore," Kaji started. Korra, however, was adamant about not paying any attention to her.

Korra hit the water first, squealing in the euphoria that the cool rivulets brought as they flailed around her feet. Kaji let out her own squeal, but it was hardly one of joy. Korra kept wading in until she was about waist deep. The coolness that enveloped her lower body was a welcome reprieve from the stifling humidity that clung to the atmosphere. It was only then that she turned back to see her captive. Kaji was clinging to Korra's hand with a vice grip, her eyes scanning the liquid drifting back and forth around her.

"What's wrong," Korra asked. Being a waterbender, first and foremost, she hadn't even thought that Kaji might have been uncomfortable surrounded by her opposing element.

"N-nothing, just a bit cold," Kaji gasped. Korra was completely taken off guard as the firebender's lips actually paled from their usual deep crème to a skeletal white.

"What?" Korra and Bolin, who had been eavesdropping, both exclaimed in utter disbelief. To them, the water felt barely below lukewarm.

"I-I guess I j-just got too u-used to Ember Island's b-beaches," Kaji stuttered out. Her free hand came up to her waist in a feeble attempt to conserve some body heat.

"Wimp," Korra teased. Kaji gave her a glare before letting out a huff of air.

"Sorry Korra," the Fire Princess lamented her lack of acclimatization skills, but knew she was fighting a losing battle with her epidermal cells.

"Well, I guess I can't torture you by making you stay," Korra sighed. She gave Kaji a quick hug, which got the poor girl even wetter and did not help at all with her predicament. "I'll come back to shore in a bit."

"Don't worry about it," Kaji waved as she started to retreat to the saintly granules of sand that had trapped in Agni's rays and become tiny embers. She took no time in flopping down and losing herself in the peace of their company.

Korra bemoaned the loss of her love's presence among her favorite element. _Stupid firebenders and their warm climate,_ Korra complained to herself_, how the hell did they take over half of the world again?_

Still, she was keen on enjoying her day out from behind the confines of a hardwood desk and the solitary sound of pen scratching on paper. Bolin made the mistake of challenging her to a water fight, which had the inevitable ending of him being hurtled around by a giant water tentacle and not too gently deposited back into the surf with a splash. They practically stayed in the company of the marine environment for the duration of three hours, luxuriously floating about or making epic mock-battles between sand monsters-courtesy of Bolin- and sea serpents- provided by Korra's waterbending skills.

In the end though, both became somewhat bored with their activities and sought entertainment elsewhere. Korra's eyes flashed to the lone figure sprawled out on the beach. Kaji had not moved an inch from where she had fallen onto the beach since they had gotten there. Her back held an angry red hue to match her country's flags, but she felt none of it because she had fallen asleep hours ago.

Korra and Bolin shared a look, the mischievous glint in their eyes revealed that they had come up with the same idea. The sun was starting to set to the West anyway. Korra smiled wickedly at the thought of a final prank to end the perfect day.

As Bolin synthesized large rifts within the sand before the shore, Korra began to bend the water in patterns matching a minor tsunami. Her hands flowed into her body and the ocean complied, pulling in until it had practically come to her toes. She then allowed it to ebb ever so slowly. Korra was careful to not allow even a droplet to hit the unwitting girl on the shore. Bolin let out a raucous burst of poorly contained laughter as two streams of water swept past Kaji on either side. The firebender moaned and shifted into a more comfortable position. Korra shot Bolin a glare as they both held in their breath, waiting to see if the firebender would awaken. The spirits were apparently in their favor as Kaji stilled once more. Korra tug at the waves once more, gathering them in a massive wall around her, enough to overshadow Bolin and herself and hide Kaji fully from view. Bolin held up three fingers, smiling broadly. Three… two… one. Korra let go of the surge of water. The wave bore down on the shore with the speed and ferocity of the perfect tidal wave.  
For a second Korra actually wondered if there was a possibility of Kaji sustaining an injury from their little gaff. That fear was quickly expelled when a scream and a burst of indigo flames came from over the immense wave. Korra and Bolin, both dying with bated laughter, peered at the spot where Kaji had been. The waves were retracting in steady intervals, left alone from Korra's influence, but there was no sign of the Royal. Bolin and Korra exchanged baffled glances. If the fire had been any indication, Kaji had repelled at least some of the onslaught.

"I would ask whose idea that was," a chill engulfed Korra and Bolin, spurred by the lilting words spoken behind them, "but I am almost certain that you both had something to do with it."

The Avatar and earthbender slowly turned to look at the dripping figure behind them. For a split second, Korra thought that she was gazing upon a demon from the deep. Kaji's hair was completely matted and had bits of seaweed clinging to it. Her face was covered by a long shadow, leaving her eyes with an ethereal shine. Her hands were loosely held up with palms facing the heavens, nails sharp as daggers ready to draw blood. Perhaps the scariest part though, was Kaji's smile. The blood thirst clearly etched into every finely sculpted, bleached bone, evident in the sharpness of the canines, was enough to soften the knees of both guilty parties. As a final touch, sapphire flames burst forth from Kaji's hands, illuminating her high cheekbones and clenched jaw in a ghostly light.

"Korra did it, don't kill me!" Bolin, three shades paler than he had been that morning, screamed as he pushed Korra toward Kaji before taking off toward the shore.

Korra gave a yelp as she careened toward the demonic firebender. She doubted Kaji would hurt her… too badly. Still, her hands instinctively reached up to protect her face. Instead of the hot impact of a fire-coated punch, Korra was surprised to feel two strong arms halt her forward inertia. Glancing up, relief washed over her as she saw Kaji's face break out into a broad grin- one without any fear-inducing elements.

"You should have seen your faces," were the only words she got out before bursting into laughter. Korra wanted to feel angry or even annoyed, but the merriment was contagious and she found herself laughing along.

"Still," Kaji came in dangerously close to Korra's face, the twinkle in her eyes rejuvenated, "I'll be wanting some compensation tonight."

Korra gulped as Kaji ran her tongue lightly over her neck, from the junction of her ear and jaw down to her clavicle. All she could get out was, "Yes Princess."

**P.S. Officially over 100 pages long on my Word Doc! I have it on 11 too which is exciting because I always use twelve to make my essays for school seem longer. Why can't one of our assignments ever be write a fictional descriptive story? Rhetorical analysis is so overrated. Anyway please review and I may have part 2 up tomorrow if I am not out eating candy because, yes, it is HALLOWEEN!**


	11. The Beach (Part 2)

**A/N: Ugh, this was meant to be up on Wednesday... I feel ashamed. But Halloween was totally awesome (my costume was killer... literally) and then I got sick, which impedes the writing/editting process. But it's up now. Warning:LEMON! You have been warned.**

**Discalimer: I own nothing nor am I making a profit though I wish that I did, that would be amazing!**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Three… two… one. Korra let go of the surge of water. The wave bore down on the shore with the speed and ferocity of the perfect tidal wave. For a second Korra actually wondered if there was a possibility of Kaji sustaining an injury from their little gaff. That fear was quickly expelled when a scream and a burst of indigo flames came from over the immense wave. Korra and Bolin, both dying with bated laughter, peered at the spot where Kaji had been. The waves were retracting in steady intervals, left alone from Korra's influence, but there was no sign of the Royal.

"I would ask whose idea that was," a chill engulfed Korra and Bolin, spurred by the lilting words spoken behind them, "but I am almost certain that you both had something to do with it."

"Korra did it, don't kill me!" Bolin, three shades paler than he had been that morning, screamed as he pushed Korra toward Kaji before taking off toward the shore.

Instead of the hot impact of a fire-coated punch, Korra was surprised to feel two strong arms halt her forward inertia. Glancing up, relief washed over her as she saw Kaji's face break out into a broad grin- one without any fear-inducing elements.

"I'll be wanting some compensation tonight."

"Yes Princess."

Bolin had used his earthbending to propel himself into an almost ninety-degree angle run up the rocky cliffs that surrounded the beach. Korra and Kaji shared a secret smile before following their _brave_ companion. Kaji looked at the towering walls of stone above her, dauntingly stretching their shadows to the east as the sun continued lowering itself along the sky.

"Allow me," Korra said before tucking one arm around Kaji's bare shoulders and slipping the other behind the girl's slender knees. Before Kaji could even protest, Korra had her held up bridal style and was commencing to make her way to the top.

"I can just use jets of fire to shoot up you know," Kaji muttered. In reality she was more than content to snuggle into Korra's strong bronze arms. The long day in the water had deepened her dark complexion to a scrumptious looking chocolate. Kaji was barely able to contain her urges to lick at it and find out whether it tasted just as sweet. She had little doubt.

"I know," Korra replied whilst tightening her hold on her lover. She hated it, but the deepening color of the evening skyline was bringing back memories of painfully blissful moments with another firebender; memories that nearly brought tears brimming in the corners of her soft cerulean eyes. Feeling Kaji's presence was a sort of safeguard against the creeping depression that lurked just below the surface.

Kaji, sensing something was wrong, shifted her position to allow her to wrap her arms around her Avatar's neck. Korra's fluttering pulse eventually settled to match the one convulsing against the thin layer of skin over Kaji's wrist. Korra let out a tired sigh, but the feeling of emptiness had, for now, diminished into a vague haunting tingle at the base of her spine.

They converged with Bolin at the zenith of the forested precipice. His only reaction to the intimacy displayed between his two friends was a shy smile, feeling as though he were intruding on a private affair. Korra begrudgingly let Kaji's legs fall gracefully to the ground. The firebender's arms moved from her neck to enfold her hips.

"Bolin," Kaji called him to attention. He was still slightly shaken from her maniacal glower so it was only to be expected that he backed away ever so slightly under her scrutiny. "It is getting late but Korra and I have some matter to discuss. We will return to the Temple in a little while but you may go on ahead."

Though it was stated as a choice, something about the manner in which the Fire Princess said it gave Bolin the strong impression that he was being ordered to vacate their company. Being the good-natured boy that he was, he gave a small nod of understanding before bidding them farewell and taking off. The soaring structure of the airbending tower stuck out from the trees before him, making his path back clear.

"What do we have to talk about?" Korra's curiosity was piqued despite herself, once she was certain that Bolin was several yards away.

"I told you didn't I?" Kaji smirked. Her gleaming irises slightly misted over with an indiscernible emotion. Korra could only gaze transfixed and hope that the other girl would continue. "I want my compensation for your heinous actions earlier today."

Korra's eyes widened as she was finally able to recognize the strange sensation Kaji's eyes were stirring within her. The clouds that constricted the usually sharp and dilated pupils were those of passion. The only response her addled brain could muster was a quiet "Oh."

"Is that all I get?" Kaji quipped, swinging Korra's light frame into a sort of dip. Korra felt her weight lifted off of her legs, her head dipping toward the crisp grass below her, as her entire mass was taken upon the misleadingly soft arms of her love.

"Well," Kaji continued, gently placing Korra, flat-backed onto the meadow's uneven ground, "I suppose I like it better when I take your breath away."

The cheesy attempt at a dirty joke brought Korra back into the material world. Her eyes widened as she registered the hot pressure of Kaji's pelvic bone digging into her lower abdomen. A gasp left her partially open lips when the firebender began to grind into her. The fact that they were both practically naked already only compounded her arousal. She felt herself slip into a pleasure induced trance, lulled into complacency by the fervent touch of the girl atop of her. Thinking back, Korra realized that it was a sort of trend by now, having Kaji lead in their little love-making cessions.

A sudden wave of defiance hit the Avatar just as Kaji began to run her fingers along Korra's long locks, spreading over the mossy ground like a velvet crown. Korra couldn't quite place the urge to hold control, to be the one to cause Kaji to scream her name first, but it soon filled every cell in her body. With a rough shove, she dislodged the stunned firebender off of her and reversed their positions. Kaji's eyes dilated at the unexpected turn of events and the slight sting she felt from the impact of her sunburned skin to the grassy floor. Korra didn't miss the small hiss of discomfort that escaped her princess's gossamer lips.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, her unprecedented surge of authority placated by the possibility of causing Kaji pain.

"Fine," Kaji whispered quickly, desperately. She wanted more of Korra's touch. The sensation of Korra's thighs squeezing into her waist made her want to beg for more. Her right arm, the left having been captured by Korra when she had flipped them both over, ran from Korra's belly-button to the knot that kept the blue swim piece in place, hiding her beautiful form from Kaji's starved stare.

"Is it your back?" Korra remembered the angry red tinge that it had taken from Kaji's prolonged nap on the sand. She silently cursed herself for forgetting and acting so brashly as to aggravate the injured skin.

"It is only a minor inconvenience," Kaji assured. Her core burned for more and she didn't know how long she would have been able to stay sane without Korra's touch.

"Stop acting like some kind of invincible thing," Korra insisted. "Turn around so I can see."

She started to get up so as to allow Kaji enough space to flip over. What she hadn't noticed was that the firebender had gotten a hold of her swimsuit string. Korra's upward momentum quickly undid the loose tie and her top piece fell away. She gave a soft squeak of embarrassment before scrambling to recover her loose bindings. Kaji took the opportunity to grab one of Korra's arms and pull her back down so that the two were flush against each other. Korra barely had enough time to catch herself with a stabilizing hand before her face impacted with the cool grass and hard dirt ground.

"A minor burn won't do anything to me," Kaji's voice filtered through a layer of hair that had fallen over the Avatar's ear. The Royal's voice was husky and a warm breeze drifted from her mouth to Korra's auditory appendage. "But being deprived form you for another second just might."

Korra reflexively swallowed, her throat clenching with the intense need to comply with her princess's wishes. She felt the tell-tale tingle of hot fingertips running over her back, now exposed to the elements. Taking three calming breathes, Korra was able to reign in the overbearing urge to devour every last ounce of Kaji's love. Instead, she broke from the girl's light hold and sat up. Despite the growling protests of the firebender, she was able to finally turn her uncooperative lover onto her stomach and examine the extent of the solar damage.

Korra stared in mild anger at the inflamed skin beneath her. Kaji's stubbornness could have caused her to get heat stroke if the wound was not treated properly. "What would you do without me?" Korra muttered as she gathered the moisture out of the land and into her hands. The iridescent glow of the healing form of waterbending covered Korra's fingers and palms as she ran them up and down Kaji's toned muscles. Soon the glow was spread from her relaxed shoulder blades to the small dip just above the line of her sapphire bikini bottom.

A relieved sigh escaped from Kaji's lips, turning into a soft moan when Korra ceased to use her hands for healing and replaced them with her tongue. The now pearly skin was so tantalizing that Korra simply couldn't help herself. Her hands moved up to catch Kaji's, splaying their fingers and then clenching them together whenever Korra hit a tender spot. Her lips ghosted over the fine peach fuzz along Kaji's spine, so fine it was transparent. She became lost in the taste of residual salt from the ocean that lingered in the microscopic pores under her wandering tongue. Kaji shuddered as Korra drew up to suck on the side of her neck, leaving a small darkening patch when she moved on to kiss down to her right shoulder. A sudden tug brought Kaji back from her reverie, already missing Korra's tender kisses against her skin. Her top was soon being pulled over her head and thrown into the unfocussed world surrounding them.

"Turn over," Korra commanded, her face flushed with adrenaline and arousal. Kaji complied without question.

Korra took no time before dipping down to capture Kaji's lips with her own. Her hands moved from their twined state among Kaji's to fondle her lover's breasts. The cold air had caused Kaji's nipples to harden, making it that much easier for Korra's fingers to find them. The slight pinches and softly rough rubbing almost sent Kaji over the edge there and then. She screamed into Korra's mouth and lifted up her hips, needing more contact and friction. Korra pushed her back down, not worrying about hurting her anymore, and continued at her own pace. Her mouth left Kaji's with a wet pop, moving to lick and nip down her pale neck. She marveled at the pristine expanse of flesh, hers to explore and ravish. When her trail finally led her to the flushed peak of Kaji's left breast, she slowly blew some cold air onto the perked tip, watching with glee as the goose bumps quickly emerged. Kaji softly whined, dragging her fingers into Korra's hair whilst slightly putting pressure on her head in an attempt to subtly push the girl to take her into her mouth. Korra grabbed Kaji's wrists and pushed them into the ground, bending two small cuffs of earth to pin them and keep her from interfering further. Kaji's protests were soon drowned out by her gasps and moans as Korra took her breast into her mouth. The sounds were musical to Korra, the songs of her own personal siren.

She moved down slowly, taking every moment to build the tension between Kaji's legs and get the girl under her squirming. Korra made sure to take twice as long swirling her tongue in and out of Kaji's bellybutton. She had learned that it was a pressure point that brought immense pleasure to her lover. Kaji's groans did not disappoint. Finally taking her attention to lower levels, Korra brought her lips to the inside of Kaji's upper thigh. Kaji's hips bucked into her touch, the scent of necessity and desperation filled Korra's nose causing her eyes to water with the intensity. She could hold herself back no longer. Kaji's panties were quickly discarded, falling into a patch of grass far from the minds of its owner and previous bearer. Korra marveled at the wetness that met her eyes. She quickly took Kaji's nether lips into her mouth, her lover's arousal filling her taste buds with sweet nectar. Kaji screamed into the late afternoon sky, not caring who heard her. It didn't take long for her to feel the impending orgasm shake through her system. Korra felt it too, quickly slipping two fingers into Kaji's opening and thrusting in with each buck of her hips. Kaji's eyes clamped shut at the first shudder wracking through her, threatening to tear her apart with each shockwave that ran along her body. Her mouth was gaping open but there was no sound that was able to escape her. Korra kept pace with her until even the slightest aftershock was done. After a few moments of euphoria, Kaji flopped down into the earth, spent and thoroughly satisfied.

"Am I forgiven?" Korra teased, licking the rest of Kaji's fluids from her fingers.

"For what?" Kaji smiled exhaustedly.

"Glad you liked it," Korra returned the smile.

"Now…" Kaji's eyes blazed with a hidden inferno. Her hands burst into dual blue plumes of fire, breaking the earthen cuffs into smithereens. "Your turn."

Korra yelled as Kaji's body unexpectedly collided with hers. The two spent the rest of the dying hours of the day making up for the time lost during the days past, reasserting their mark on each other's heart. When they were finally completely spent, Kaji turned to the beauty lying beside her, gently playing with her locks between her fingers. Chuckling lightly she mused, "I have no idea how we're going to get back to that tower. I don't think I can feel my legs anymore."

**P.S. Yes, this chapter was very short, but I just had it stuck in my head all day. I hope I didn't accidentally start writing this instead of my FRQ for History, that would be embarrassing. Anyway, please review even though it was sucha short chapter. It lets me know people actually like this fic.**


	12. Game Start

**A/N: Hello, I am updating, yes! I would have had this done earlier but I had my Homecoming on Saturday, first one ever even though I'm a Junior (how embarrassing) and I came back at like 1:30 AM so yeah. You don't want to read the things I come up with that early in the morning. Anyway, hope you like it, please review and thank you to all of you who have reviewed. I take them all into account.**

**Disclaimer: It's chapter 12, if you don't know by now, well you may want to get your brain checked for malfunctions. I own nothing.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"The girl shall come to Republic City, where I will be staying for the duration of three months. There, she will be taught the manner of running a state by the Council and be supervised by me."

The lone bird flew through the pitch black sky as though a shade of something animate but not quite alive. The new moon hung darkly in its zenith above the cloudless atmosphere that held the slumbering city within it. It was practically invisible, camouflaging impeccably with the void of space behind it if not for the faint line of light that shown along its circumference. The starlight was too faint, the power of the distant suns overshadowed by the trillions of miles separating them from this universe.

The bird's dilated pupil picked up the faint silhouette hiding behind the corner of the only open window within the expansive building. It had been circling the towering building that was the sole structure on the tiny island for the better part of half an hour, but now all of its efforts had been rewarded. Silently, the messenger hawk drew its feathered wings to its body and entered a gravity-induced dive. The scenery around it blurred into unreal shades of grey and midnight blue until, with a resounding rustle that broke the still of the night, it halted its descent just above the window where it had spotted the figure. It cautiously perched itself on the windowsill, its target having disappeared in the flurry of the curtains blown in by a wayward breeze. The hawk gave a small squawk in confusion only to have a steel grip clamp itself over the poor creature's beak.

"Shush, my pet," a soothing voice reached its ears, the thudding of its small heart relaxing slightly at the familiar sound. "We can't have anyone hearing us."

The pale hand that held the bird captive retracted into the dark sleeve of a sleeping robe. The hawk hopped onto the outstretched arm, offering it a place to stand. The long talons dug into the fabric to keep balance but the animal knew not to put enough pressure to break skin. It had seen the outcome when a foolish compatriot had made that mistake.

"Let us see what news you bear for me," the feral tint that laced the very feminine voice made the bird nervously pick at a loose feather on its chest. The plumage began to fall but was quickly snatched up by the hand not currently attached to the arm on which the bird was perched. A flicker of blue fire danced around the small feather before it disintegrated into ashes and blew out of the window. The hand then moved to the bird's legs. The hawk remained perfectly still, awaiting… well it was not quite certain what for.

The message was plucked from its small holder, the large ones that had once been slung over its ancestors' backs no longer prudent for the stealth missions it was sent on. The paper was unfurled with the greatest of delicacy. Golden eyes skimmed over the few words, the neutral positioning of the mouth turning into a slight frown of concentration.

_For the glory of Empire. Those who follow shall bare the black of responsibility._

She had probably reread the slip at least six times, making sure that it was not simply a figment of her imagination. It had been years now that she had schemed and manipulated those in her environment for the purpose of this. Now that time had come to begin the game, no, it was much more than that now. It was time to begin her conquest and restore the power that should have been rightfully given to those of her bloodline. Seventy years of this false peace had been enough. And yet, a strange thing possessed her at that moment. For the past nineteen years she had had only one purpose: to avenge Princess Azula's downfall and bring about the rise of the Fire Empire once more. But now… her eyebrows fell as she brought her fingers together over the bridge of her nose. _Never get attached, it was such a simple rule once, _she groaned. She tried to clear her mind by closing her eyes but immediately shot them open when the face of the girl played behind her lids. _No weakness… she'll understand… and even if she doesn't, there is nothing for me in turning back now._

She took the pen from the newly wetted ink bottle that sat on the small wooden desk that was at the corner of the small Spartan room. On the blank back of the peace of parchment she scrawled in small, dark letters :

_For the glory of Empire. The sapphire dragon clothes itself in red and bares its fangs tonight. Take the one enwrapped in the dragon's jaws._

The parchment was then rolled up and placed in the small bindings that wrapped around the scaly right leg of the hawk, still loyally holding its position. The girl then moved back to the window, the silent breeze rolling through the land caused her to shiver. She let out a small curse before pulling the neckline of her clothing closer in an attempt to conserve some more heat.

"Fly now, take them my message and be sure that they will be waiting," the hawk blinked as though it could truly comprehend what was being whispered to it in that conspiratorial tone that hid so many secrets.

Had the moon been shining, the hawk's wings would have had a brilliant silver sheen as they were spread open. The tips of the outermost feathers were the most brilliant bronze, more pure than the actual metal, as only the most royal of birds had. As it was, there wasn't enough light to reflect even the slightest glimmer of majesty and the bird lifted into the sky as plain as a raven-crow. A small smirk splayed over the girl's mouth as she lost sight of the small messenger among the pervading shadows. Messenger hawks had long been retired of their duties, having been replaced by the efficiency of the telegraph. However, such things were so easily intercepted and translated. Kaji prided herself in knowing that no one would be looking for a sole hawk floating through the air currents with a tiny strap that held her future.

"Do we really have to go to this Tenzin?" Korra grumbled for the umpteenth time. The only response she got was an exasperated roll of two deep brown eyes.

"It is a very special event and yes, you are expected to take part in it," Tenzin stated matter-of-factly.

"Urgh, being the Avatar is nothing but tedious duties and boring parties," Korra continued, unaware or unsympathetic to the annoyed twitch of her airbending master's eyebrow.

"And you will perform these duties and attend these parties with the biggest smile that you can muster."

Korra crossed her arms and slumped into the chair she had been assigned to while her hair was being done by Pema's gentle and dexterous fingers. The annual exposition of Republic City was taking place throughout the day. Inventors from all corners of the world, from the coldest regions of the southern expanses of ice to the driest of the Earth Kingdom's deserts, had gathered to exposé their innovations before the eyes of enthusiastic spectators and possible investors. It was truly just another ploy at bringing unity amongst the myriad of cultures that spread throughout the four nations. A banquet would be held in the evening hours: delegates from all providences and positions would be converging to discuss global matters over scrumptious exotic dishes and diverse choices of liquor. Tenzin had strictly forbidden Korra from experimenting in the assortment of fermented beverages, making the evening's procession all the more daunting.

"Don't slump like that Korra," Pema commanded. "You're going to ruin your hair."

The sulking Avatar relented and pushed herself back up until she was once more straight-backed against her seat. The tight kimono they had her in was the most uncomfortable piece of clothing that had ever been invented. It had been designed to encompass a little of every nation, to represent the unity she represented as the link between all nations and the spirit world. The body was made in the style of the Fire Nation: silky and held to the curvature of her body by a tight belt that was wrapped from her waist up to just below her chest. The back was tied in an intricate bow that cascaded down to just behind her upper thighs. The sleeves and neckline were undoubtedly Earth Kingdom. The sloping cuffs were long enough to allow her to shove her head into each one and still give her space for her arm. Pema had chastised her to no end when she had actually done it. The neck was wide as well, contrary to the tightness that was customary of the Fire Nation designs that made up most of the attire. It was quite amazing how the dress had been blended without looking completely ridiculous. The coloration was meant to be based on the ceremonial robes of the Northern Water Tribe. It was an oceanic blue laced with white. Two koi fish, representative of Tui and La swam around each other on her back. Small moons in varying phases adorned the belt to symbolize the different tides and seasons sacred to the tribes. The only Airbending token she had been given, as a sign of the minority of its peoples but also encompassing the strength they held, was a painted blue arrow reaching down her forehead to end just between her eyebrows. Two smaller arrows had been painted along her arms as well.

Pema had been sparing on the makeup, putting on only enough to accentuate Korra's already picturesque features and perhaps put a little more feminism into the sharp lines of her jaw and cheeks. A slight indigo tinge of eyeliner was visible under her long eyelashes and some clear lip gloss had been applied to her lips to complete the picture. All that was left was the hair. Korra would have happily kept her usual ponytail but everyone else had 'insisted' though it was more of a threat than anything.

"How is it coming?" Master Katara's voice asked from somewhere behind Korra's back.

"It would have been done a lot sooner if Korra wasn't so fidgety," Pema answered. Her answer was a bit muffled by all of the pins that she held between her teeth, waiting to be poked into the monstrosity that was Korra's hairdo.

"I am not," Korra replied indignantly.

"You rubbed off half of your makeup because, and I quote, 'my face was itchy'" Pema retorted.

"That was an accident," Korra whined. She tried to hide her guilt with indignation. She hated lying to Pema but how could she have told her that the reason she had returned from a short reprieve from the morning makeover with all of it smeared and botched was because a certain firebender had practically mauled her in her room. Thinking of Kaji's strange behavior made Korra uneasy. She had never kissed her like that before; with such a manner of urgency as though the entire world was about to come crashing over them. It was most probably paranoia, but Korra had learned to trust her gut about those things. And besides that, it wasn't fair that everyone kept getting on her case.

"Well, the rest of us are just about ready to depart. Whenever you are finished," Katara's voice was tinged with unbidden merriment. She couldn't help but marvel at Korra's tom-boyishness. She remembered how excited she had been getting her first makeover with Toph. Thinking of the small earthbender made her somewhat wistful for the past.

"We'll be down in a second," Pema promised. "For the love of the spirits Korra, hold still!"

Tenzin had allowed a couple of hours for the family to enjoy the myriad of exhibits before Pema, Katara, and the children would return to the island and the rest of their small group would head over to the adjoining room of the commerce building where the ball was being held. In truth it was the old Sato mansion, left to the city by the young heiress after her father's betrayal. Tenzin silently hoped the lingering memories that haunted the place would not cause Korra to fall back into her depression. She had been coming back to her old self with such progress over the past few weeks.

The cars they had borrowed once they landed on the mainland were the newest model, refined by the best minds of both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. The sleek black automobiles practically glided over the rough pavement of Republic City's urban streets. Korra tried not to show her pout at having, once again, been split with Kaji. In fact, she had barely had a glimpse of the girl the whole day, apart from their little make-out cession. A flash of gold or ebony here or there, but that was about the extent of it.

It was a welcome feeling when the cars jolted to a stop. A billow of steam was released as the engines' pressure was relieved. The entire party disembarked and coalesced before taking a look at the building before them. Two giant stairwells led to the second story entrance. Between them was a massive window, rectangular and topped with a half-circle. Two pillars shouldered it. Further out, four smaller ones holding four crouching gargoyles, flanked twin doors. A butler in white stood beside either door, gloved hand reaching around the ornate knobs that would no doubt swing in to reveal the festivities inside. The building rising behind the front façade was a small tower, perhaps seven stories tall. A balcony ran around the edge of the second story, hiding the bottoms of two mahogany doors. The faint outline of more apartments behind that one was hidden slightly in the fog that perpetually clung around the estate. The sloping tiled roofs were the typical Asian design, ending in sharp points that curved into the sky. Despite the fact that the sun was still shedding light over the landscape, even in its descent, lights shined through every window. The noise associated with excited and awed crowds could be heard just beyond the white-washed walls.

"Shall we?" Tenzin asked. His yellow and orange robed rustled as he took the first steps to the entrance. Pema followed, wearing a flowing sunflower hued dress to match with her husband and his culture. The children skipped after them, each having been garbed in acceptable attire for such an event, but also flexible enough to keep up with their energetic dispositions. Master Katara had dawned on her signature furs, joking that there was no purpose in an old woman dressing to impress. Korra silently envied her. Those thoughts didn't have much time to manifest, however, because she finally came face-to-face with the one person that she had been waiting for. Kaji had put on a splendid ebony dress. It reached a sensible length just above her knees, without being too constricting. It was strapless, leaving room for a light crimson scarf. She had adorned two golden earrings that cascaded in tiny spirals from her earlobes. A necklace of matching material showed two dragons spiraling around each other, attached in the front by their thick serpentine necks melded together. Identical bands of gold also curved around her thin wrists, glistening with the reflected scenery around them. Korra couldn't help the blush that came to her cheeks when her princess smiled at her.

Hiding behind the slightly curled bangs that Pema had allowed to hang around her face, Korra hurried to catch up with Tenzin at the door. It was most certainly not the time or place to start ogling the beautiful firebender.

The doors opened into a room that was scarcely recognizable. The sparseness of the Sato Estate had been completely overwhelmed by the compounded imagination of a thousand minds. Giant flying machines hung from the ceiling on iron chains; glistening fountains of coral and marble spewed different colors of water as the statues decorating them moved in complex motions; flaming stoves marked the cuisines that were being showcased farther away. One man was pointing out a rather interesting contraption that, when fed coal, would spew a thick gust of black smoke and then turn small gears along its bottom to spur its miniature wheels to spin and then go chugging along a circular track. Another woman had a large spyglass hoisted upon a stand pointed out of an open window, showing curious spectators the wonders of her 'telescope.' There were dozens more that Korra couldn't even explain. Her eyes felt as though they were going to pop out of their sockets at any second. She solemnly wished that Bolin had been able to make it with them. He had apologetically gone earlier due to 'prior engagements of the girl kind' as he had put it. Thinking of her friend brought unwanted musings of the other brother that had spent time here. Korra bitterly wondered whether he and Asami had ever snuck into this very room to try and get past her father for a bit of fun.

"It really isn't a pretty sight is it?" Kaji's voice sounded from behind her causing Korra to give a little jump in surprise. Her heart practically leapt into her mouth at the unexpected closeness of their bodies.

"What-" she was about to inquire before bringing her gaze to where Kaji was looking. She almost had a heart attack for the second time in less than a minute when she caught sight of the monster in front of her. Somehow in Korra's musings, she had stumbled upon an animal keeper. 'Animal' was a term she used lightly as she looked upon the giant slug-like creature that had latched itself upon the arm of the spindly middle-aged man's bare forearm. It was leaving a nauseating trail of green slime across his skin.

"What is that?" Korra gasped in horror. A series of long spikes began to protrude from the snail's back and it turned its disgusting head to look at her with two small black eyes.

"Calm down Genie," the man said caressing the thing's back until the spines retracted into the slick lime goop that was its skin. "It is merely a curious onlooker."

Korra was somewhat frightened by the eccentricity of the man before her. He appeared to be in his mid-forties, with unruly salt-and-pepper hair that stuck out in clumps and unshaven stubble gracing his pale skin. His eyes were dark, practically black to the point that they were indistinguishable to the pupils. His clothes were composed of tattered purple pants and jacket- one sleeve rolled up to his arm to accommodate the slimy creature- and a dirty white shirt underneath. His shoes were probably the only thing new about him, shining like small black pearls.

"Are you curious about my little beauty young lady?" the man inquired innocently. His teeth were flashy white, almost as though he had washed them with bleach.

"I- uh," Korra was stupefied.

"Yes, we are actually," Kaji interjected for her. "What does your… fauna do exactly?"

The man gave a chortle and his eyes moved about wildly from side-to-side. Korra was to the point of dragging Kaji away from the psychotic man, but the firebender stood patiently and waited for his spasms to die out.

"She is quite the interesting creature my Genie," he finally said. "Her slime can cure practically all skin maladies ranging from the smallest rash to the worst burns and everything in between."

"Really?" Kaji was now intrigued. Such an ointment would be most curious and useful in her hands. "Would a demonstration be possible?"

"Why of course. Anything for a pretty lady such as yourself," the man swayed on his feet, a drunkard couldn't have looked more unstable. He rolled up his other sleeve and stuck out his arm. It was so pale that Korra could see the throbbing of his sickly bluish-purple veins.

"If you would be so kind as to burn me," he said.

Kaji turned to face Korra. "If you wouldn't be opposed to it, darling."

Korra stood there dumbfounded for a second. Not only was that arm looking incredibly unnatural, but Kaji was also making her burn it even though she was an experienced firebender. She looked between the man with the unnerving smile and the pleading look Kaji was giving her. She knew as soon as those slender eyebrows rose in expectation that she was about to give in. She took in a deep breath and lit her small finger on fire. As she lowered it a flash lit Kaji's eyes and the infant flame burst into a minor inferno. Korra and the man both screamed: the former in surprise and the latter in pain. Whilst Korra was busy apologizing and wondering at her sudden loss of control and the man was cursing through gritted teeth, Kaji stoically observed the snail slide its way up the man's uninjured arm and over his shoulders to the burnt one. The skin was a horrible red, swelling and bursting with puss with each passing moment. It was a beautiful wound, the firebender had to admit, and one that would certainly cause a great deal of cellular damage and scarring. The strange creature had finally made it to the edge of the burn. It lowered its eyes to look at the inflamed skin before continuing to move down the forearm. Where the man's expression had been one of extreme hurt, it soon gave way to relaxation with each inch the snail moved. The only sign of Kaji's surprise at the results of the thing's slime was the slight widening of her eyelids. Where before there had been nothing but welts and hissing skin, there was now no sign of the damage whatsoever. The ghastly paleness of the man's complexion had been completely restored.

"That is quite amazing," Kaji applauded.

"It is truly," the man replied. He was by then completely healed.

"How much are you offering for that animal?" Kaji asked. Korra turned to look at her as if she had gone mad. Practical or not, the slime-ball was not something Korra considered worth keeping around.

"Oh, I couldn't be convinced to part with my dear Genie for the world," the man replied.

"But surely you are here to make a profit off of something yes?" Kaji pressed on. Korra was seriously debating grabbing the girl and forcing her to move away while they still could. There was no way that she would be spending the last few weeks of Kaji's stay in Republic City looking after that thing.

"I'm selling vials of her mucous. It is what holds the healing properties you just saw," the man indicated a box full of small vials of the fluorescent globs of discarded extract from 'Genie.' "It keeps very well, best frozen but at room temperature it lasts a few months. You only need a small amount to cure anything."

"Perfect, how much?" Kaji grabbed five of the miniature glass bottles.

Korra tuned out of the exchange, focusing on the more aesthetically pleasing aspects of the exhibition. If Kaji wanted to buy overly priced goo from some whack-job, that was her decision.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the firebender breathed into Korra's ear after a few moments. Korra quickly shooed her away, paranoid about the amount of eyes that were on them. Looking around, she realized that they had become separated from Tenzin's group. Still, just because she couldn't see anyone she recognized didn't mean that the reverse was also true.

"People can see," Korra warned. Kaji gave her a hurt look but refrained from any further intimate displays.

"Let's go over there," she said excitedly, beckoning Korra to another set of machines. Korra rolled her eyes at the sudden mood change, but followed without comment.

The masses of people were escorted out of the facility a few minutes after the sun was hidden behind the ring of mountaintops to the far west of the city. The excitement and heat created by the tumultuous bodies of grown men and women along with the fragile small bodies of the children gave way to a more refined, quiet air that permeated from the remaining personas. Those permitted to stay for the evening ball were escorted to one of the other large rooms on the second story, which were in abundance in the mansion, that had been decorated for the occasion. The marble floors were shining with the reflection of the hundreds of electrical candles that 'burned' from their holsters in the giant candelabras that hung from the ceiling. Tables laden with foods and beverages lined three of the walls, the fourth being fully made of glass. Bustling men and women of elegance and wealth milled around, buzzing with gossip and politics. The center of the floor was occupied with a raised platform where a live band played their woodwind and string instruments. All were dressed in white except for the conductor who was garbed in a sparkling black tuxedo and matching slacks. His fair hair was a rarity that made him stand out among the sea of brunettes.

"Too bad it would look strange for you and me to dance," Kaji sighed in lamentation. "If only it were just us and the music."

Korra smiled and twined her hand into Kaji's for a second, long enough to give it a squeeze, before letting go. She was easily able to locate Tenzin. His tall stature and bright clothing made him stick out, even among the expanse of all hues in the light spectrum.

"So, Tenzin," she began when she was able to slide closer to him. "What am I supposed to be doing again?"

"Go out and mingle Korra," he answered in a tired voice. "Meet new people, befriend them."

"But they all look so stuck up or old," Korra was about to go into a speech about how she would rather be dunked into the Northern Ocean than mingle with the people around her, but Tenzin's stern face made her think twice about it. "Fine."

Making concessions didn't have to be horrible though. _I'll go 'befriend' Kaji while I'm here,_ Korra conspired. It wasn't being antisocial; she was just choosing who to be with. Unfortunately, when she turned around, she saw no sign of the dark-haired firebender. Her eyebrows knit together in frustration, "Just great!"

Kaji felt bad about leaving Korra, but certain matters required dealing with. She made sure to pass along the interior of the dance floor as she bore down on her target. A quick look over her left shoulder was caught by the aquamarine irises of the conductor. _The black of responsibility, huh?_ She made sure to flash him a broad smile before continuing on her primary course.

The new representative of the Northern Water Tribe, after Tarrlok's assumed death, was a good-natured man-something very difficult to find in a politician. He was tall, trimmed and very well endowed with a pair of eyes that inspired trust and confidence. He wore his formal fur coat made of ermine-fox just right, so that his emerging alcohol-belly was hidden. His hair was just starting to lose its natural ebony sheen to the grey of age, though most people told him that it further endeared him. Of course, his award-winning smile was another factor that most definitely played to his advantage. In fact, Aroostook would have been the perfect governmental figure had he not been so kind-hearted.

He had been noticing the girl eyeing him from a few feet away for quite some time by that point. She was very young in comparison to the other ladies who, in his opinion, were the only ones worth attention in the current nest of serpents he found himself in. She was beautiful, standing out among even the most gilded minister's wife or governess despite the relative simplicity of her attire. Aroostook of the Northern Water Tribe was no cradle robber, but he was fascinated despite himself… in the most innocent of curiosities of course.

A short reprieve of the bombardment of prospect dance partners and congratulators left him relatively alone beside the buffet table and its culinary wonderments. He turned to distract himself in a particularly welcoming fondue, but it was short lived.

"Forgive my forwardness sir," a soft, velvety female voice reached his ears from behind his ornately-clad back. He didn't need to turn to know who was hailing him at that moment. His eyes, as he moved to acknowledge the new speaker, were captured by the amazingly rare intensity shelled in the curious golden glow of the girl's irises. "You are the new Water Tribe Minister?"

Aroostook forgot his tongue for a second and gave himself a few seconds by pretending to choke of a sip of wine he had partaken in whilst still alone. "Aherm, pardon me. Yes that would be a correct assumption."

"Ah, it is nice to see a fellow newcomer in this magnificent example of our century's finest cities. I am Princess Kaji of the Fire Nation," the girl stuck out her hand in a welcoming gesture. Aroostook gazed at the youthful face of the girl who couldn't have been more than in her early twenties. He took it, bemoaning the constant pressure of office that had been thrown onto the backs of the young. The girl's, Princess Kaji's, skin was warm as was common amongst the children of the Land of Kindling Flame.

"The pleasure is mine," he returned the courtesies. The smile that was given him seemed genuine enough, and yet there was something in those eyes… a sort of hidden depth to them that set the Tribesman ill at ease. Their banter continued for a few more minutes, Aroostook growing more and more comfortable in the presence of the charming southerner, until Kaji suddenly turned her head to look at the grand clock that was chiming the end of the twentieth hour.

"Would you mind holding this for me," she asked pulling the light red shawl from her porcelain shoulders. Aroostook glanced at the item with a questioning look, unsure as to why the sudden request had been made. "I feel somewhat unwell and it will only get ruined if I were to take it with me in search of the bathroom. It will also let me find you more easily upon my return."

Aroostook almost refused, astounded by the gall the girl had in her last sultry comment. Still, he was a gentleman and a gentleman would not refuse a sick girl. He nodded and reached out for the silken scarf. The fabric didn't even rustle when he slipped it along his fingers.

"Thank you," the firebending royal dipped her head and quickly made her way toward the center of the ballroom once more. Aroostook gazed at her retreating form in growing confusion and anxiety. His hands unwittingly tightened over the parcel of clothing that was left of her; a sort of reassurance that she was not a figment of the wine.

Kaji had little time left to find the one she was looking for. Thankfully the bright colors that made up Korra's attire made it easy to find her. Kaji stopped in her tracks at the daunting circle of people that had trapped the Avatar in their midst. The irate firebender cursed under her breath, trying to find a possible excuse to call Korra to her without causing too much unwanted attention to fall upon them. Her eyes darted from the throng of rich bastards to the clock face and then back again. She had all of fifteen minutes left. Throwing caution to the wind, she darted into the crowd, weaving in and out with enough grace to make an airbender jealous, until she was able to slip into the very inner circle of guests Korra was trying to entertain.

"Master Katara has something she wanted to tell you," Kaji blurted, not even formulating enough of a thought as to what exactly the old waterbending witch would have wanted to say to her- no, to the Avatar. Korra, thankfully, did not make any inquiries. She had never seen Kaji quite so breathless and rushed, so she was quite certain that it was not due to something pleasant. Bowing quickly to a few choice delegates and other people of importance, she took off after her love's disappearing form.

Kaji practically sprinted them into a seemingly deserted hallway. Looking to both sides to ensure their privacy, she took no hesitation in crashing their lips together. Korra tried not to melt into the passion that the searing pressure of Kaji's lips on hers was eliciting from her body; to focus on the obscurity of the panic that filled each gasping break of contact they had to take in order to breathe; but her mind was lost. Her fingers grabbed at Kaji's hair, her neck, anywhere that she could grip to bring them closer together. The urgency was infectious.

"We should be getting you back before they start to wonder if you have been abducted," Kaji joked after what seemed like a few seconds and an eternity. The attempt at nonchalance was unsuccessful in the wake of the knotting of her stomach.

"Whatever you say," Korra smiled, oblivious to the crack in Kaji's calm mask. "As long as we get to continue this sometime later."

"I promise," Kaji murmured, too low for Korra to actually hear, but forceful beyond what Kaji expected from herself.

The blonde-haired man watched for the girl in black who had disappeared from his peripheral. He had never met the Fire Princess in person, but his commander had shown him a daguerreotype and given him a rudimentary description of her hair pigmentation and eye color. There was also the message. The sapphire dragon swathed in red, holding the prisoner within its fangs. Well, he had seen the old man that she had given the crimson cloth to, filling his hands as though a river of his blood freed by the teeth of such a beast. Movement of carbonate strands of hair and fabric of a dress caught his attention. He gave no indication of the reacquired subject of his observation, continuing in his arm motions in time with the music. The crescendo would soon be upon them. He slightly cocked an eyebrow at how close his high leader stood to the naïve Avatar, but thought no further of it. The final flick of his hands and the baton matched perfectly with the second hand striking eight-thirty.

The music was soon drowned out by screams of surprise and then horror as glass erupted throughout the chamber. Bodies dropped to the floor in an attempt to shield themselves from the shards raining down on them. Former ladies and gentlemen turned into raging madmen as they scrambled over each other to find an exit from the mayhem. Bodies of fleeing men and women fell lifeless as silent and almost invisible water daggers shot from the holes created in the windowpanes, moments before black-clad figures burst into the assembly. The first to reach the doors found, to their growing fear, that the wood had been bolted shut from the outside and would not budge no matter how many shoulders and chests were crashed into them. The screams multiplied as the instruments continued in their falling action, flowing to the resolution of their demise.

Through the confusion of the cacophonous noise of the desperate and the silent attack, Korra could barely comprehend what was taking place around her. The fact that she and Kaji had been near the edge of the room saved them from the first onslaught of projectiles, but they did not go unnoticed by the stealthy assassins that had crept in. Korra's limbs felt leaden as the ice particles flew toward her exposed body, the dress itself holding her captive better than any chains. The only thoughts running through her head were questions about why waterbenders were attacking them. A violent force knocked her off of her feet, crushing her painfully into the floor. Her head made contact with the cold marble and she felt her vision blur in a moment's confusion of the senses. The next thing she noticed was a warm feeling spreading down her side and dripping onto the floor. Her instincts immediately searched for an internal sign of pain or indication of perforation, but there was none. A groan from somewhere below her vision made her heart drop. She tried to move her head up to look at the source of the sound, and hopefully find that it came from another source than the one she was thinking of. Unfortunately the hit her skull had taken left her jarred and she was unable to move without a wave of nausea washing over her.

The slight pressure on Korra's legs that she hadn't noticed at first suddenly disappeared. A small cry of pain accompanied the rather violent way in which Kaji was torn off of Korra. Silently she growled that she would have to ensure that whoever had hit her with those daggers be punished severely. However, actual pain and blood was much more realistic than any sort of imitation and she had to leave without a doubt in anyone's mind as to her being a victim. The masked man slung her precariously over her shoulder and gave a muffled call to his companions. Kaji inwardly smirked at the bemused expression that was on Minister Aroostook's face as the assassins took him gently by the arms and escorted him to one of the broken windows. The hidden dagger to his back kept him from making a fuss that would bring suspicion to their little ploy. The rest of her servants played their parts well, kneeling in respect as the innocent man was brought before them. She could see it in the terrified eyes of the other party guests; they believed every luscious lie that she had concocted. In the morning, Aroostook would take the fall and she would have her first victory. A sharp burst of discomfort in her side caused her to give another muffled cry, causing her 'captor' to loosen his grip on her slightly. A bloodcurdling yell from behind them brought Kaji's attention to Korra's crumpled form lying on the floor. Kaji couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the Avatar clawing for a grasp on the cool stone beneath her, making a heroic attempt to push herself up. Kaji visibly winced when the smooth chocolate arms gave out and Korra sank back to the ground. Another shriek came from her tanned lips as her tear-filled cerulean eyes gazed up at Kaji's retreating form. Korra desperately fought for control of her body, prayed for the ability to move her limbs, but to no avail. All she could do was watch, screaming in horror as the blood-soaked form of Kaji grew ever distant, carried away in the arms of an assailant. The unmistakable sound of giant motors was heard above the din of people, corralled by ten men poised to strike at the slightest sign of provocation.

Korra's eyes drew into narrow slits when she saw the man clothed in ermine-fox fur step onto the gangplank of the zeppelin, tinted a dark grey to match the night sky. His back was to her but she knew his identity just as well. The overbearing anger that seeped into her bones exploded with a violence that she had never felt before, spurred by the sight of a familiar vermillion shawl, casually wrapped around the back of his neck. Three other bodies were carried onto the airship after him, one of them being a limp girl dressed in black.

Korra's eyes began to shine, her mind falling into a sort of mist while the rest of her began to hover in a boneless manner in the air. She hadn't lost control of her Avatar State in what seemed like an eternity, and yet there she was. She could no longer hear the muffled cries of the frightened party-goers nor see the faces of those around her. Everything was seen through the lens of a very foggy glass bottle. A distortion. An unexpected sting hit her below the chest, causing the Avatar glow to flicker slightly. She heard two very distinct shouts from opposite directions, one of a man and the other of a woman. Other shouts followed but they were inaudible over the sound of roaring wind and the feeling of falling that spread through Korra's frame. Two strong arms caught her in the midst of her descent, but by then she was already losing consciousness.

Kaji glared daggers at the cloaked man who had thrown the spiked icicles at Korra. She knew it was not rational and in retrospect it had saved them from facing the full wrath of the Avatar State, but the irrational and overprotective side of her bemoaned causing Korra pain. She couldn't help the feeling of relief that came over her when she saw Tenzin break out of the quarantine they had set up and catch Korra before she hit the ground. Then the zeppelin broke away from its perch on the remnants of the window pane and began its departure into the haven of the dark. Her view of the mansion and its inhabitants was quickly blocked by the closing portal and the fact that her servant was carrying her into the ship's hull.

"Wait, set me down there," she weakly indicated to one of the chairs bolted to the wall in a case of necessary preparation for ejection from the craft. If the man had any trepidation he did not show it, following her orders to the letter. She hissed as he gently dislodged her from his back. The wounds she had sustained in pushing Korra out of the way of the ice daggers had been more extensive than even she had anticipated. Rummaging in a hidden pocket within the folds of her dress, she pulled out one of the vials of green slime that she had purchased earlier. _Let's see if this really works,_ she chuckled darkly. The sensation of rubbing the stuff over her cuts was strange but not unpleasant. In a matter of seconds, to her overbearing joy, the skin had regenerated and there was not even a scar left.

"I shall be requiring a change of clothing into something a bit more comfortable and then I shall be having an audience with our captive."

Minister Aroostook was scared out of his mind and, had he drank some more wine, he may have found that he had lost control of his bladder. The small iron room they had placed him in was really playing off of his claustrophobia and he could have sworn that he heard some scuttling in a few corners. His hands were heavily chained to the wall as were his legs so his range of motion was limited. All he could do was close his eyes and pray that he would wake up with a monstrous hangover in his apartment.

The screech of unoiled hinges shook him awake. His eyes widened, expecting something horrible. Instead, in stepped the fire-eyed girl he had met earlier, Princess Kaji. Only, this time she was far from welcoming. The shadows hid her face, but the black armor she wore was something right out of the history books of the old Fire Nation during Ozai's reign. She stepped in closer, reveling all of her features to him. Her hair had been pulled into a topknot, held together by the golden crown of the Crown Princess. Her friendly smile had pulled up into a high smirk, her eyes that held the warmth of embers were colder than the tundra he had lived in, and her hands were no longer soft but hidden in gloves that sported ebony metallic claws on each finger.

"I hope that our accommodations fall to your favor Minister," she mocked. "I know they are not of the latest fashion of luxury, but they will have to suffice you for now."

"W-why are you doing this? What do you want with me!?" Aroostook yelled in desperation. His eyes were prickling but he refused to be degraded into a sobbing wreck in front of this person.

"My ultimate goals do not concern you at this point. As for what I want with you… well, you are going to help me start a global war," she replied, checking her steel claws for nonexistent nicks, her face the epitome of boredom.

"I'll do no such thing!" Aroostook found his courage, though his voice shook more than he would have liked.

"I find that highly unlikely," Kaji retorted in a monotone. "Agent Kain, if you would please make our Minister a bit more cooperative."

Another woman walked into the small room, her piercing jade eyes absent of all emotion. Her thin lips spread into a thin-lipped smile. "Yes, Princess."

"Oh, and one more thing Minister," Kaji sauntered over to his hunched form against the cold wall. Her hand reached down, scratching him lightly on the cheek, before grabbing the red scarf that she had given to him. A droplet of blood barley missed the fabric, landing instead on the exposed fur. "Thank you for holding onto this for me."

With that she moved back out of the room and closed the door, leaving him alone with the unnatural woman with the dead eyes.

"Well, let us begin," she said, reaching for him.

**P.S. Ah, finally getting to the good parts, right? Tell me in a review. Thank you for reading, sorry for typos but I am not perfect or fully awake and may let some things slip. Until next time, whenever that is. :)**


	13. Proceeding Forward

**A/N: I am soooooooo sorry it took so long to upload this. It makes me feel like a bad person. In my defense, I was over at my dad's for a 3-day weekend last weekend so that meant no writing Sunday and no time Monday. Tuesday I wrote half, but it was too short... and then I had a 2-day math test and an AP History test. So yeah, busy busy week. But I am uploading now and I am happy! Sorry for any typos, my editing was somewhat lacking in my excitement to get this uploaded. Reviews are appreciated a lot! **

**Special thanks to ContractKillerN01 and Chrosis for the lovely feedback. I hope that you keep enjoying reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination and my addiction to wild cherry flavored tick-tacks and the two boxes that satiate it.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

The music was soon drowned out by screams of surprise and then horror as glass erupted throughout the chamber. Bodies dropped to the floor in an attempt to shield themselves from the shards raining down on them. Black garbed men burst through the holes in the window panes, rushing with incredible speed toward the panicked party guests.

Korra's limbs felt leaden as the ice particles flew toward her exposed body, the dress itself holding her captive better than any chains. The only thoughts running through her head were questions about why waterbenders were attacking them. A violent force knocked her off of her feet, crushing her painfully into the floor. Her head made contact with the cold marble and she felt her vision blur in a moment's confusion of the senses.

The masked man slung Kaji precariously over her shoulder and gave a muffled call to his companions. Kaji inwardly smirked at the bemused expression that was on Minister Aroostook's face as the assassins took him gently by the arms and escorted him to one of the broken windows. Together they entered the awaiting zeppelin that would provide their escape.

"My ultimate goals do not concern you at this point. As for what I want with you… well, you are going to help me start a global war," Kaji grinned.

"I'll do no such thing!" Aroostook found his courage, though his voice shook more than he would have liked.

"Agent Kain, if you would please make our Minister a bit more cooperative."

"Well, let us begin," she said, reaching for him.

The man was but a shadow amongst the granite walls of the building he leaned against. The dark awning and the relative lack of street lighting in the particular area, thanks to some knowledge of short-circuiting wires, made him practically invisible to any and all midnight strollers. Thankfully there weren't very many of those around.

The particular apartment that he was looking for was located on the third story of the building parallel to his position. With an almost inhuman flexibility and agility, he jumped onto the first-story window pane, then the second, then third. He crouched on the balls of his feet- the 4-inch ledge not offering footing for much else. A small metal tool was procured from the many folds in his black waist-length coat. It looked no bigger than a nail file and was about as wide and thick. When carefully inserted just below the window, and moved around slightly to loosen any bolts or locks, it had the desirable effect of popping it open with ease. The man's face showed no signs of triumph or pleasure when the welcome 'click' came and the window lay unbarred before him. It was not his first time at this after all. A stray blonde hair slipped out from under the wrappings that hid his head from the elements and the eyes of onlookers. His piercing luminescent eyes twinkled whilst taking in all of the room's contents.

A hardwood desk, glittering with a well-kept finish, was the central figure amongst surrounding bookcases displaying a variety of literature on the theory of political science and law. Papers were meticulously stacked in orders of indiscernible categorization. He held no interest in the mundane workings of a mediocre politician and only spent what time was necessary in analysis before stepping onto the spongy white rug that covered the expanse of the room. His steps left no imprints as he snuck over to the mahogany piece of furniture. Gloved hands pulled out the chair with the most delicate of touches, making sure to hold it aloft with one hand as he searched the bottom of the desk with the other. Most men of government that he knew would keep a hidden compartment accessible to the right hand if it were slipped in just the correct fashion… or perhaps the left if their dear Tribesman was left-handed.

A small pressure against a certain portion of the wood was all it took to give away the small hollow. The clasp was internal as could be discerned by the resistance it gave whenever he pressed hard enough to hit it against the top interior. The man pressed up with a little more vehemence in an attempt to nudge the lock open. He heard the satisfying sound of metal scraping against metal a mere second before he felt the hidden flap give way. The documents were attached to the small plank with a sort of tape that was adhesive enough to the wood without being too attached to the documents themselves. Still able to use only one hand, the thief reached into the pouch and pulled out the three letters it held. Two were pale white, holding the Northern Chief's seal, and seemed to be proof of Aroostook's appointment as the official representative of the Northern Water Tribe. Those were carefully placed back. Such documents would be needed to kindle the sparks of doubt that were believably running rampant amongst those still left at the former Sato Estate. The third paper was concealed in a dark blue envelope with a red sash tied around it, the mark of something important. Balancing his weight on the table, the black-clad man lifted his knee perpendicular to the floor and placed the chair over it so as to keep it suspended. His remaining foot sank ever so slightly down into the confines of the carpet. The letter within his hands was quickly undressed from its wrappings and held up to the faint starlight that drifted through the windows. He somewhat regretted not bringing the night-vision goggles but their greenish hue had always annoyed him somewhat. Cold blue eyes moved over the fine black print upon the leafy pages within his grip.

To his utter boredom it turned out to be nothing more than a list of names and contacts that would be helpful to their hostage as he made his way amongst the political bodies of the day and age. Still, it could be of some value in the end. He tucked the script into another pocket, larger than the one containing his file, and proceeded to take out another set of papers from within his inner breast pocket. It was truly perfect that he should find the red-striped letter at that time; now all he had to do was hope that the police force in the wretched metropolis had sense enough to check for hidden catches. He quietly slipped the false documents into their envelope and replaced them into their place among the others. The hidden compartment was then closed and the latch automatically replaced. For added effect and some insurance, he made sure to leave a small corner of the crimson envelope protruding so as to give off the feeling of urgency. The chair was set down exactly as it had been before, not a thing disturbed. All that was left now was to rummage through some of Aroostook's personal possessions and take whatever was deemed 'necessary' to make it appear as though he knew that he were leaving. They were to be small things of course, but enough to make it count. A spyglass here, a diary there, some letters from home, etc. until all hidden folds and pockets were full of trinkets. Having completed his task, he withdrew from the room as he had come in and was then lost unto the night.

Kaji waited impatiently in the small cove just beyond the visibility of the city lights. The grand thing about Republic City being ringed with mountains was the fact that finding visual cover was fairly easy. It had been a few hours since the attack on the exhibition and she was ready to set a steady course for the outer reaches of the snowy wasteland that they called the Northern Water Tribe. Perhaps she wasn't that anxious to go quite yet. Ice and she had never agreed with each other.

The awaited knock on her door shook her from the thoughts of infernal chills running over her perfect skin. Closing her eyes halfway in a relaxed position of superiority she gave an assertive, "Yes?"

The blonde man who had become her third in command walked into the small office room. She had preferred the large bridge room with its expansive view of the surrounding environment, but those walls left too much room for spies and echoes. This one was much easier to secure and the walls were of considerable thickness to dismay anyone who did not possess a bat's hearing. Her guest walked up to the iron chair that had been placed on the other side of the ornate bronze table where Kaji sat. He quickly gave a formal bow before taking the seat and sliding over two sheets of paper. Kaji took them up gently, bringing down her half-rim reading glasses- more for show as she had perfect vision and the lenses were simple glass neither concave nor convex- as she looked at the contents.

"Interesting. These names may come to our use, good work…" she tripped up slightly, realizing that she still had not procured his name. Silently she berated herself for the mistake.

"Karak," the man said, noticing his superior officer's pause. He did not really find it insulting, as some might have, to have had his name overlooked.

"Anything else of importance?" Kaji continued unfazed. The identity of the blonde man was forever stored in her mind now, so it was most prudent to continue with business as though she had known it all along.

"The false papers were planted and, with a small overestimation of the intelligence of those Earth Kingdom… well, I made it obvious enough to make it subtle," Karak stopped in his insult at the shake of his Princess's head. He knew that many of their allies would fall under the category of Earth Kingdom and it would not do well to speak ill of them, even in private. "I apologize for my slip of tongue."

Kaji decided that she genuinely liked Karak. The man was smart and very useful in completing his assignments. She gave him one of her signature cold smirks before complimenting, "Very well done. You may leave now. I will be requesting your presence once Agent Kain has finished with Aroostook's session. Then we shall discuss our strategy once we arrive at the Northern Water Tribe."

"Yes Princess," Karak stood, bowed, and left the room. Kaji rested her elbows on the cool metal surface of the table, placing her forehead against her interwoven fingers, before letting out a heavy sigh. The thrill of holding the strings of the world in her hands was sometimes a bit overwhelming, even for her system. Not for the first time did her mind drift off to a certain sunset and a certain someone lying next to her as they watched it descend. Shaking the memories away, she stood up and went to find her captain.

Korra had been bandaged up as well as the police force first aid kit would allow. Her head was going through a major migraine, but she was still fighting Tenzin with all she had when he tried to get her to lay down on one of the make-shift beds that had been spread out in every available space in the room. She relented only when he promised to ask Lin about any leads if she behaved herself. Growling, she lied down and tried to relax her sore muscles.

The bodies of the deceased had been cleared a few hours ago, leaving quite enough room for everyone injured and the physicians and policemen frantically running about. The first few shifts of each had been mayhem, what with all of the adrenaline still pervading throughout the survivors of the massacre. After the first initial hours had gone by, most things had returned to order. The critical patients were then loaded onto the awaiting ambulance vehicles and wheeled off with all haste to the nearest hospitals. The law enforcers had collected all they could take as 'evidence' but the cold reality was that there was barely a trace of the assailants. Their weapons had melted in the first half-hour after they were used and not a scrap of cloth or hair had been left for even a shirshu, not that they had one available, to sniff out.

Korra groaned as her head started to throb again. It had been on and off, becoming especially painful when she scrunched up her forehead in thought. She let out a string of low curses under her breath all of which ceased as soon as she noticed the Airbending Master and a certain metalbender coming her way. Her eyes couldn't help but light up in the faint hope that they had caught the airship and Kaji was somewhere save and sound, being treated for her wounds. The hope quickly died with the stone cold expression on Beifong's face and the apologetic one worn by Tenzin.

"You didn't get them did you?" she wanted to cry; wanted to scream; wanted to go into her Avatar state and uproot the entire region, the world even, to find her injured firebender. Korra couldn't help but picture all of the blood that had been oozing from the wounds inflicted when Kaji had used herself as a shield to save her.

"Not yet," Lin sounded tired, as though she had gained ten years in those few moments. Anger laced the older woman's side comment. "And just when we were beginning to enjoy the peace after Amon's rebellion."

"I have to go after them," Korra demanded. She was done sitting on the antiseptic cloth beneath her. She was the Avatar and, everyone else be damned, she had to do something. Because, if she didn't, that hole in her heart would only be torn further apart. In reality, she was equally as afraid of what would happen to her without Kaji's supportive presence as she was about the girl's predicament. The desperation was clear in her voice, however, for once, she didn't care who heard or what conclusions they drew. She didn't care that it seemed somewhat spontaneous for her to suddenly care so deeply about a girl she had just met. Her mind simply didn't think about such details anymore.

"You are doing no such thing right now," Tenzin cut her down immediately. He could see the conflict and pain behind Korra's bewildered blue eyes, but he also knew that she had taken quite a hit and was still in shock. He understood why she was so worried, having seen how Kaji and his pupil had become quick friends. Still, the father in him was not about to allow her to endanger herself further… at least not yet.

"But Ka-" Korra began.

"Kaji will be found," Tenzin reassured. "Lin has her best men on the case and they have a description of the zeppelin from a few witnesses. They sent a search party to Councilman Aroostook's appointed residence to look for anything suspicious."

"Councilman who?" Korra wasn't happy about being interrupted, but her curiosity was piqued and took priority.

"The new North Water Tribe representative," Lin supplied. "A few witnesses stated that they saw him being escorted into the ship before the Fire Nation Princess and the other three hostages were taken aboard."

Korra's mind suddenly flashed through her last few moments before everything went black. The coat of fur and the tall man with black and grey hair who had worn it; the men in the black outfits kneeling before him as he walked rigidly into the airship; the burning hatred she felt for him in those few seconds; every iota of information that she had on the man was once more there before her. "So that's who it was. That explains the waterbenders."

"That explains nothing," Tenzin insisted. "All we have at this point is conjecture."

"Whatever," Korra wasn't paying attention. Her mind was set on one thing only, getting Kaji away from her captors. If she ended mangling the son-of-a-bitch who concocted all of this, then that was an added bonus.

"Korra," Tenzin grabbed her arm and turned her so that she was gazing into the compassionate clouds floating in his eyes, so similar to his mother's if but for the color, "I need you to listen to me. You need to rest. Kaji and the others will be found and rescued… for now though, you can't do anything without hurting yourself."

"But-"

"No 'buts' understand," it was not meant to be a question.

Korra glared, refusing to be put down just yet.

"If you are both quite done," Lin interjected. She had her eyes closed and her lips pressed into a thin line. All of the bickering was not doing her nerves any favors. "Korra, I will be sure to inform you of any new developments we have found and, when Master Tenzin has deemed you fit, I will be requiring your services in locating and fighting against this new threat. However, until that time, you will sit here and recuperate or I swear I will chain you to the floor."

Tenzin nodded his agreement but was quickly cowed by the menacing green eyes that turned to him. He let out a small sigh when they went back to focusing on the defiant young teen staring at her feet. Korra didn't want to wait; she wanted to hunt and fight. It was her nature. The sense in Lin's words rang in her head and she knew that she would eventually capitulate to the older woman. Quietly, nearly inaudibly, she gave a defeated, "Fine."

"Brilliant, glad to see we can agree on something," Lin clapped her hands, officially closing the matter.

"Chief Beifong!" a winded police officer ran up to her. He huffed a few times before regaining his breath and the ability of speech. "W-we found something in a hidden compartment in the Councilman's office."

He held up three pieces of paper, two white slips and a blue envelope with a red stripe. Lin perused the information given by the former articles, giving little attention to the lengthy ceremonials and more emphasis to the legitimacy of the seal. It was certainly Water Tribe and no one had the Chief's ring but him so a forgery of such detail was practically impossible to create. She finally flipped to the envelope. She knew enough about the Tribes to know that this was the symbol of a document of utmost importance. Korra and Tenzin both leaned in; in Korra's case looking up at the parchment whilst Tenzin looked over the shorter woman's shoulder. It was really rather disappointing. All that had been scratched into the rough paper with a graphite-tipped pencil was a crude schematic of some sort of building. It had three stores with an average of five or six rooms to each. The top story was labeled with such things as 'armory', 'provisions room', 'meeting room', 'lieutenant quarters', and by far the most important: "Councilman's quarters'. The second story, also presumably the ground level one, held more quarters for a few men in employment along with a kitchen and recreation room. The final story, also labeled as 'Basement Level' held was looked like five rooms, each split into four sections that looked like little holding cells. Two dots at each door and one in each room labeled the positions of guards and a few times were etched next to the outside of the building; presumably the change in shifts. The other two seats of paper that had come with it were conspicuously blank. Neither of the trio was willing to bet that there was no importance to them, but it would have to be deciphered from its encryption.

"What is this supposed to be?" Tenzin made the inquiry more to himself than anyone around him. He had taken to stroking the goatee that ran down from his sharp chin.

"Most likely the facility where they plan to hold the prisoners," Lin stated. "It could be quite useful to us."

"But why would he leave a thing of such importance?" Tenzin was growing suspicious about some of the details to the plot. "Why make his involvement so publicly known? And why leave this in his office when he must have certainly been aware that it would be the first place we looked?"

"Because it's worthless," Korra's disheartened voice answered him. Both Tenzin and Lin turned to look at her with raised eyebrows and a similar question on their tongues. "I know because it doesn't matter what the blueprints say; we still have no idea where that place is."

Tenzin's brow knit together and Lin pinched the bridge of her nose to keep the impending migraine from coming on. Korra's logic was infallible. What could they really do with the insight garnered if there was no location? Lin turned to the man who had brought them the slips and handed them back with instructions to file them with anything else they were able to find.

"It is late," Tenzin observed. "We should be getting back to the island. Pema and Mother will be worried about us and I wish to put their fears to rest."

Lin nodded in understanding before moving to shout orders at her lackeys and send them scurrying to do her bidding. Tenzin gingerly propped up his young student and slung her arm over his shoulders. Korra let him take her without complaint. She felt completely drained. Still, upon seeing the same man who had given them the parchments, she made an excuse for Tenzin to give her a few moments. He stood, worry evident on his face, as Korra vanished into the flurry of others.

Korra located the man, speaking to one of his commanding officers about some manner of transportation to the headquarters. Korra didn't even have to use much stealth in her movements when she 'accidentally' bumped into him. At first he seemed flustered, but upon realizing who she was, he quickly fumbled out an apology. Korra waved it off nonchalantly and walked away with a large grin plastered to her face. In her hand and then hidden in the depths her bra-as she was lacking in pockets- was the blue and red letter with the schematics. Finding Tenzin, she accepted his shoulder as a support once more and they made their exit from the building. Their departure was swift and quiet, flagging down the first taxi they could find and directing the man to the Air Temple.

Once they had stepped onto the familiar soil of the peaceful place, they were assaulted by two very worried women and three sets of eyes curiously peering from behind the door; the children having been officially sent to bed but evidently snuck out once they heard the commotion. Korra excused herself from the arms of Pema and Katara, stating she was tired and wished to sleep off the events of the evening. Both mothers looked upon her with concerned and compassionate eyes. She couldn't help but flinch when they began to murmur about Kaji after she had walked a few paces away.

Once back in her room, Korra could only vacantly stare at her wall, not wanting to think anymore. The lights around her slowly blew out one by one until she was sure that everyone else had retired for the night. She silently felt a pang of anger at how they were so unfazed by Kaji's kidnapping… princess-napping? Whatever it was to be called. In the end, she was too tired to actually continue in feeling. The fatigue she felt seemed to reach right into her very spirit, sapping everything out of her, and yet, whenever she tried to lie down, she could not fall asleep. She went back to staring at the dark grey walls, covered as they were in the shadows that encased the night.

A sudden spark flickered behind her glazed eyes. She hadn't even noticed the silent tears that had been streaking down her face until she reached up to rub her numb cheeks. The spark steadily grew brighter as she began to rub against the leaking salt water with more vigor. She was not about to sit there and twiddle her thumbs, expecting others to find her lover for her. It was her responsibility before anyone else's to find Kaji and yet there she was, complacently waiting like an obedient puppy for Tenzin's sign of approval. With a renewed resolve, she quickly and silently moved toward her closet. She grabbed a sturdy bag of animal skin, one she had used often on her journeys through the North. Grabbing a few clothes for varying conditions, she packed everything into the sack. She quickly drew off the dress, being careful to place the letter into the safety of a convenient pocket of her new outfit. She then snuck out of the room; making sure to slide closed the door with the greatest of care. The kitchen was not too far away from her but she didn't want to risk being caught now. Instead she slipped out of one of the many windows. She remembered that she had kept a small amount of emergency money within Naga's saddle. She would use some of that to get anything she needed in the context of food, water, and other such supplies.

The stables were musty from the humidity brought in on the cool sea breeze. Naga made to whine when she sensed the presence of her master and friend. Korra hushed her with urgency, paranoia setting in like a smothering blanket. Each creak of a floorboard or snap of a twig sent tremors up her spine and bile into her throat. With shaking fingers, Korra saddled her polar bear-dog, praying that she would be able to make it far enough, before the morning revealed her absence, to not be overtaken by any of Tenzin's search parties. In retrospect she wondered whether it would have been prudent to leave a short note, but it was too late now and Tenzin would eventually come to the conclusion of why she had gone. Not thinking of anything more, she spurred Naga forward, running north.

They hit the edge of the island but did not stop, even when it appeared as though they were plummeting to their deaths. At the last minute, Korra's arms moved in the familiar arcs of waterbending, creating a sort of funnel that sucked them into the depths of the sea. The bubble of air that surrounded them was enough to keep her and most of Naga dry and breathing while also leaving the animal's legs on the outside so that she could paddle them toward the distant city lights. Korra aided in their speed by propelling them with the currents. She swerved slightly to their right, wishing to avoid the urban sprawl as much as possible. Despite it being the wee hours of the morning by that point, there were always those who were awake and alert. Any of such description had to be circumvented if she had any hope of completing her mission.

They emerged from their marine cover into a dense forest. The foothills of the mountains spread before them, darkening masses of pitch black that were indiscernible from the skyline except for the lack of celestial bodies that hung in the latter. Korra gazed into the stars, gauging their position relative to that of Ursa Major.

"Alright Naga," she whispered, procuring the blue and red envelope that she had secretly snagged from the unwitting boy while he was too busy apologizing to her. She held it to the sensitive nose of her fluffy companion. The canine hybrid took a large whiff and then a few shorter ones to commit the scent to memory. "I know you know Kaji's scent and now we have this one to go by too. You're no shirshu, but I'll bet you are the next best thing."

Naga whined and placed her nose to the ground. Her brain was too inferior to understand the complexities unraveling around them, but she knew that Korra was anxious and she didn't want to let her down. Still, when nothing but the scents of the crisp grass and pine hit her nostrils, she couldn't help but whine in annoyance. She could pick up the faint traces of mouse-hares and weasel-foxes but nothing to match the almost overpowering cinnamon of the firebending girl or the musky smell of the man who had held the letter. Naga whined again, saddened that she held no answers for her master.

"It's okay girl," Korra petted her behind the ears to reassure her. "I didn't expect you to pick up anything anyway. Well, where would a councilman of the northern Water Tribe, who obviously doesn't care if his identity and affiliation are known, take prisoners? I think I at least know where to start. It has been a long time since I've been home."

Turning the reins to indicate a Northeastern direction, Korra spurred her ride forward, both disappearing into the dark of the wilderness.

Kaji's deft fingers curled around the pen with perhaps a bit too much pressure. The snapped and disfigured remains of its five predecessors lay in a pile at the far edge of her desk. The ink jar was also running empty. She would have to remember to request another one. The mass of crumpled letters that piled into and around the wastebasket was starting to irritate her in the way that it kept exponentially growing. Still, she had to phrase all of this perfectly, leaving nothing to create suspicion or even the slightest doubt. True, it would be an anonymous, but she had learned to be overly cautious. The final touches were impeccably scrawled long-hand onto the paper. The final copy, revised and edited so as to be completely vague and yet most informative. She had observed Inzei for quite a time, even if he himself had not known it to be so for the majority of it, and she trusted in his ability to decipher the subtle hints she placed within. It was such a simply letter really, written in the hand of someone she knew Inzei would find familiar with. In fact, he had been the one to appoint the implied person to the high position that was held by said person in the politics of Republic City. Kaji sat back to observe, for one final time, her handiwork.

_To the Fire Lord,_

_I speak of matters concerning you and the nation to which I should not, and most likely will be forced not, to speak about. I doubt that news will reach your ears until the matter has been resolved by the delegations of the governments of Republic City and the offending nation which I will not yet name. But it is not fair for you to be left in the dark. The daughter of Agni has been taken by a man of Tui. To this matter I shall keep you informed. Please look for my letters and do not let them be read by others._

Perhaps it told too much for the first letter of importance. She had sent one before simply requesting that the next one to be sent be read in private. Still, it was not ascertained that Inzei would consider the plea for privacy. She had to obtain his attention though. So, with a resigned huff of expelled air, she gave it to the attending servant and bade him send it in the familiar black envelope. Black had always signified importance in their nation; Kaji felt no need to break with tradition now. After all was done, she allowed herself a moment's reprieve from the sudden flood of events. She couldn't fully say that she hated synthesizing her grand schemes, but at times she did catch herself dreaming of the slow days of her youth or the past few of leisure spent amongst friendly faces. Such thoughts were banished as soon as they appeared and the firebender went back to studying her maps. The stars pointed their ship to its destination, north and east.

**P.S. Well, I hope that it was worth at least half of the wait. Now that my week of Thanksgiving break, the one good thing about the California deficit, I will probably be writing more... but then again I may have to perform family duties. Shudder at the thought. Review!**


	14. The Tempest

**A/N: Hello, I promised quicker updates and here is one. Yay! Please review because that will get me through this blasted holiday and my extremely normal and boring family.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the OC's, they are MINE! Because even I want some imaginary credit. :) Everything else belongs to its respective people.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

All that had been scratched into the rough paper with a graphite-tipped pencil was a crude schematic of some sort of building.

"But why would Aroostook leave a thing of such importance?" Tenzin was growing suspicious about some of the details to the plot. "Why make his involvement so publicly known? And why leave this in his office when he must have certainly been aware that it would be the first place we looked?"

"Because it's worthless," Korra's disheartened voice answered him. Both Tenzin and Lin turned to look at her with raised eyebrows and a similar question on their tongues. "I know because it doesn't matter what the blueprints say; we still have no idea where that place is."

"Alright Naga," Korra whispered, procuring the blue and red envelope that she had secretly snagged from the unwitting boy while he was too busy apologizing to her. Turning the reins to indicate a Northeastern direction, Korra spurred her ride forward, both disappearing into the dark of the wilderness.

Kaji's deft fingers curled around the pen with perhaps a bit too much pressure. She had observed Inzei for quite a time, even if he himself had not known it to be so for the majority of it, and she trusted in his ability to decipher the subtle hints she placed within. It was such a simply letter really, written in the hand of someone she knew Inzei would find familiar with. Perhaps it told too much for the first letter of importance. She had to obtain his attention though. So, with a resigned huff of expelled air, she gave it to the attending servant and bade him send it in the familiar black envelope.

The stars pointed Kaji's ship to its destination, north and east.

Tenzin didn't even try to prevent the impending, foreboding, headache that was due to appear at any second. He could not believe how foolish he had been to have thought, to have even entertained the possibility, of Korra actually listening to him for once in her life. He wanted to let out quite an unprofessional groan before slumping so that his head rested on the cool table before him. It had been that morning that he had been woken up from a much needed session of sleep, only to be told by his mother that Korra was missing. His first reaction had been a drowsy disinterest, thinking that the girl had simply snuck off somewhere with Bolin and Kaji. As his mind began to emerge from its stupor and the events of the previous evening were dawning on him, however, he finally gave out the appropriate response. For him that was a very loud, abnormally infuriated "WHAT?!"

After a hastily made tea to sooth his fraying nerves, he had immediately set of for the stables. To his happiness, Korra had found pity for him by not stealing one of the flying bison, but her polar bear-dog was, of course, found missing. The poles that held up the roof over his head seemed quite inviting for the purpose of hitting his head against them. He should have had the blasted girl tied to her bed posts or something. Chained more like as normal ropes would be no match for her. It was pure insanity.

Having discovered her mode of transportation and the fact that she had packed a bag- to his begrudging relief- Tenzin decided to pay a small visit to the only person he could think of that would mayhaps have a solution. So, kissing a very solemn Pema goodbye, he set of for the streets of Republic City.

Lin had agreed to see him hastily once he had shown up in front of the imposing building where she worked- perhaps reigned would have been a better verb for it. And there he was, sitting in a slouched manner most unbefitting of his role in society, waiting for Lin to come up with some ingenious way to bring back their rogue Avatar before she did something they would all regret.

"Do you at least know where she would be going?" Lin asked, her face in its signature scowl. It really wasn't that she was particularly upset about anything; moreover that was just her thinking face. A muffled reply came from Tenzin's mouth, hidden by her sturdy metal desk. Rolling her eyes she said a bored, "What was that?"

"I said that I have no idea what runs through the mind of that girl anymore. I don't think I ever did," Tenzin stated unhappily. He had raised his head and was abashed at the clear look of disapproval on his friend's face. Lin always had a way of making him feel even more worthless than he was in a dire situation such as that one.

"Did she give any indication as to the fact that she was leaving?" Lin was smug about finally getting the airbender's attention, but she wanted to smack herself at his carelessness. Not for the first time did she wonder about how such a wise man could be so naïve at times.

"Not really," Tenzin mused. "She looked exhausted when we returned to Temple Island last night and went straight to her room. Her light went off shortly after that and she was so quiet that I was almost certain that she had fallen asleep."

"Did you check on her to see?" Lin hoped to the high spirits he said 'yes'.

"Of course. I am not a fool." At the look given to him by the metalbender, he decided to rephrase his sentence. "I went by her room to make sure she was alright. I even cracked open the door. She was in her bed, unmoving. I just- I don't know Lin."

"Don't be too hard on yourself over it. We'll get her eventually. If there is one thing Korra is horrible at, it's staying inconspicuous."

"I hope you're right," Tenzin glanced out the small window to the exterior world, hoping that his young charge was alright. To his dismay, the dark clouds that he had not seen roll over them had begun to sprinkle them with the first onslaught of a future downpour.

Kaji was having quite an aggravating experience, attempting to prevent her habit of tapping her finger against the armrest of her chair. It was a nervous tick that her grandmother had disapproved of since it had developed at the tender age of seven. She had constantly been put through exercise after exercise to 'cure' it, but the muscle memory had been so engraved into her mind that it was only through immense will power that she kept it under control. The fact that she even had reason to feel anxious had fallen entirely on the astounding incompetence of the ship's captain. She inwardly growled at the thought of the man. His prediction of a storm rolling in from the east had been quite spot on, but unfortunately for them, he had not found it wise to fly over areas with populous. This had eventually led to them flying over the rugged, wild terrain of the Earth Kingdom's many forests, with nowhere to land, in the middle of a tempest. The men on the vessel had been thoroughly shaken, many having abandoned their posts to find a deck to empty their stomachs off of, leaving only Kaji and a few choice others to ensure that they did not all plummet to their doom.

The lightening had been the worst of it really. Kaji had ensured that, to minimize all perceived involvement of the Fire Nation's part in her plans, her crew was composed entirely of water and earthbenders. The only real drawback, when it came to the particular circumstances they found themselves in, was that she was by default the only lightening bender of the lot. That also meant that it was her duty, and hers alone, to ensure that their zeppelin- made up of many metal parts and flying right in between the daunting columns of cumulonimbus- did not get struck by the deadly electricity. Thoroughly soaked, and completely miserable, she had stood on top of the massive hot air-filled balloon, tethered to one of the supporting iron beams and redirected every single streak that was deemed 'too close for comfort.'

Three hours and forty-five minutes later, the captain had finally found a town that was surrounded with an expanse of level fields that allowed for a safe landing. Once they had descended to a comfortable height, Kaji had been able to get back into the relative comfort of the ship and waited impatiently for their grounding. The trees surrounding the small meadow housing the ghostly town swayed with such vehemence that one could almost hear the roots straining to retain their holds on the rain-soaked dirt, clinging as though they knew that they would be swept up into the vortex were they to lose to the winds. The grass was a pasty grey, lit a brilliant white in the flashes of lightening that occasionally sparked from the nether regions of the billowing clouds. The zeppelin was almost completely invisible against the dark outline of the forest's beginning, the ropes and flags billowing in the twists of the compressing and expanding air gave the illusion of millions of branches and leaves dancing to the storm's tempo. Even with the sharp metal legs that had been buried deep into the crust upon the violent landing, the balloon had to be deflated to prevent the ship from being wrenched away from the Earth.

A heavy gale had begun to pour over them. Where the droplets above the troposphere had been uncomfortable, the icy sheets now hitting the bedraggled crew were daggers that pierced through even the thickest and most water-resistant of fabrics. Kaji, having been let down from her post before the large balloon had gone down, led the small group toward the faint little lights that appeared so frail as to be engulfed by the elements at any moment. Still, the tender flames that lit the oil lanterns- no electricity having been taken that far into the country at that point- held on with a strength that was thoroughly unexpected of them.

They had finally reached the small road that split the hamlet in two rows of rickety shacks. Kaji took a look about, trying to discern any building that might have been an inn of some sort. A three-story house caught her attention. The lights there were most numerous and the glow bathed the windows and the porch beyond them in an ethereal light, looking as though it lead into the spirit world instead of a decrepit room to house those unfortunate enough to be stranded in the desolate area. The roll of thunder was enough to convince the Fire Princess that she had no right to be picky at the moment, and with a bracing intake of air, she took off in a straight march to the door.

Karak, for whatever hidden reason of his own, opened the door and entered first. His eyes swept over the entirety of the interior of the inn. It was indeed one, marked by the large reception desk and a multitude of keys all of different shapes and sizes. The skinny bookish man sitting behind it was fast asleep, his head lying on the empty catalog book and his hand wrapped in a vice grip around a pen so old that the feather was simply the spine and nothing more. A bar to the side had three rugged men staring at their drinks and a fat bartender cleaning a glass with a soiled towel. None of them paid any attention to the new party that had just entered the establishment; a good practice for those parts was paying mind to your own business and no one else's.

Karak prodded the clerk awake with the butt of one of his knives, a sharpened peace of bleached bone with an intricately carved handle. That one was his personal favorite, depicting a savage snow wolf-fox baring its sharp canines and narrowing its obsidian-jeweled eyes threateningly. The image was not lost on the quivering man behind his rotting desk who awoke with a start.

Kaji stepped forward, drawing the rather worthless hood away from her sopping hair, to address the befuddled man. She procured a small pouch from under her heavy cloak before indicating to the others in her party and asking, "How much for room and board… and some food to accompany it?"

The shakiness in the Earth Kingdom peasant's hands slowed the entire process as he calculated the sums on the Abacus; the clicking of the small beads as they set into place along their string was drowned out by another boom of thunder from outside. The patter of rain was increasing in its intensity and a few droplets could be seen dripping down onto the floor from cracks and crevasses in the old roof. Tile had only been laid on in some places, the rest having been covered only by wood and some straw. Small puddles could be seen appearing everywhere, leaving greenish-blue stains on the moss-riddled floorboards.

"H-here a-are your r-rooms," eight keys made their way shakily into the hands of the crew members. Most would be sharing rooms except for Kaji, Karak, and Izuru. Aroostook would be taking turns among them to ensure that he did not escape, not that there was a real possibility of that what with Izuru's methods of persuasion. Still, it never hurt to overestimate and accommodate. "It will come out to be about three hundred and seventy-three Yuan please."

"What a fucking rip-off," one of the hands grumbled. Kaji shot him a glare and returned to look upon the spindly clerk before her. He shrunk back under the intensity of her fiery orbs and faint smirk. "Surely you could bring down the price a bit for us. It is such a frighteningly stormy night and my men and I are tired. I believe that a few of them will more than make up for the discount at your… lovely bar over there."

The clerk pushed the circular glasses that were twice as big as his petite face up along the bridge of his nose. Kaji's smirk widened in triumph at the nervous gesture. "I- I suppose three hundred and eleven for all, including the meal miss."

"Well, I suppose I can't exactly rob you," Kaji replied wistfully, looking behind her to survey her men, some sharpening small weapons they kept on their person. She turned back to the clerk, her face telling him that she had every power to do just that. The man's Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped.

"Two hundred and forty-nine miss, but that is as low as I can make it."

"Perfect, I thank you for your generosity," the money was quickly exchanged and Kaji released her crew to do whatever they saw fit- with the explicit instructions to not cause a scene. The men each took a key from her hand and went about, milling around or retiring to their beds. She herself moved to retire to the room with the largest, oldest, most ornate key in the peculiar bunch that she held. Karak moved to follow her up into the dark regions of the upper floors, taking another key from her diminished collection.

Kaji thought nothing of the waterbender's footsteps keeping close to hers, believing that his room was somewhere in the vicinity of her own. It was strategically beneficial to have her most trusted near her so she really could have cared less. The key she had chosen fit into the room at the far end of the second-story corridor. She had not wished for a room on the topmost story due to her distrust of the stability and protection provided by the roof. It was always safer to bet against leaks when further from the downpour. The lock clicked open and she hastily opened the termite-eaten door.

The room inside was sparse, but then again she had expected nothing more from it. The small bed was tucked in the left-hand corner close to the door. Upon further observation, the reasoning behind it became evident: the farthest wall had been darkened with a large water stain, new streaks of the infernal liquid spilling in at the exact moment. Kaji groaned, wondering if the spirits had something against her or were just so bored as to decide to play practical jokes on poor mortals with much to accomplish in short amounts of time. A lamp, lit by lard and a wick, was placed precariously at the edge of a broken nightstand with a small cabinet used to store small possessions too delicate to be left on the floor. As to any other sort of furnishings, there were none.

Two strong, rough hands suddenly shot out from behind her and wrapped themselves around her mouth and torso. Her arms were locked against her sides as she was lifted off of her feet and walked over to the bed. Despite her predicament, Kaji could not help but gag at the state of the dirty sheets and forced herself not to think about what could possibly inhabit the mattress she was expected to lay on.

She was unceremoniously thrown onto the thing, the straw filling muffling the sound to a dull thud. She whipped around, ready to singe the face off of whomever it was that was stupid enough to try anything with her, when her hands were caught in grips that could rival chains and win. She struggled but the person had more mass on her and she found herself pinned down. Her rage that had been barely contained burst forth with all fury when she saw that the person straddling her hips was none other than Karak. His blue eyes had darkened with an irrepressible lust, his lips parted to allow short gasps of breath to escape and hit Kaji's flushed face. She growled at him, animalistically inquiring as to 'What the Fuck he was thinking' but it did nothing to stop him from forcibly crashing his heated lips into hers.

Korra cursed her sour luck. Not only had she lost a few hours of time that she could have used in making headway north due to her getting lost in the dense undergrowth that covered the lower rungs of the mountains, but then it began to pour rain seemingly out of nowhere. Naga had gotten them pretty far, passing the entire mountain range in only a day or so. Maybe it was less; Korra couldn't tell due to the fact that the abysmal clumps of water hanging in the sky made everything look so much darker than usual. For all she knew, it could be high noon or midnight.

Naga's whining alerted her to the fact that she wasn't the only one that was being adversely affected by the splattering of water that reached into her clothing to stick to her skin. The polar bear-dog looked as miserable as the Avatar felt. A few hours ago she had kept a protective bubble around them, but exhaustion and the inevitability of eventually getting wet had caused her to give in to the elements nature was assailing her with. In the end, even she was no match for the forces of the planet when they decided to not give a crap about how she felt.

A bark from her ride brought her out of her lamentations and allowed her to spot the break in the dense foliage that, aggravatingly, had held no shelter from the rain at all. "A town, yes. Maybe the spirits don't hate me that much after all."

Her mood somewhat lifted, Korra spurred Naga forward at a run to the shelter of the buildings. The town sat in the central point of a plain of grass. It was a very poor village; that much was certain from the looks of the disrepair of the houses. Most windows were dark and desolate. None looked especially welcoming, but Korra was not about to be judgmental as long as she could find a warm blanket on a dry floor.

Her cerulean eyes fell upon the distant light of a rather small house, much lesser than the large three-story villa across the muddy road from it. A crippled old man was sitting, statue-like, on a beaten old wooden chair, staring out into the depth of the storm's darkness. Korra took one look between the man and the glistening windows and merriment coming from what she could only suppose was the inn of the village. Shrugging, she decided that she would see what was wrong with the senior human then, if he turned her away, she would see the rates of the other place.

"Excuse me sir?" she questioned gently, getting off of Naga's back to come down to the man's eye level. She wasn't really sure of what exactly she was going to ask him after that. Somehow 'What are you doing looking at the rain like a psycho?' did not seem like the correct way to go about things.

Luckily for her, two bleak twilight eyes turned from the scenery to focus on her. The irises had once been the brown of many of the continent's residents, but were now of the darkest ebony. So deep that it was impossible to separate where the muscle met the drop off of the hole that made up the pupil.

"What would a young lady such as yourself be doing out here in such weather?" his voice was nothing like what she would have expected. Instead of the frail, quaky nature of the vocal chords that comes with age, the sound that exited the elder man's throat was deep and kind with a hint of hidden power. He smiled crookedly, displaying a full set of shiny white teeth. A flash of light illuminated the dark around them. Korra jumped ever so slightly as the crackle and boom hit.

"Just passing through really," she answered. Naga started to grumble behind her, complaining of their continued position in the downpour. The old man's smile only widened.

"Do come in, both of you. There is plenty of space as I am alone in my house," he propped himself up stiffly from the chair. His arms were thin and shook slightly under the pressure of the rest of his frail body, but it was only a second before he was taking long strides toward the door. Korra was about to inquire as to how she would fit an enormous arctic animal into such a small establishment, but decided to hold her tongue in case the invitation was retracted.

Amazingly, once inside, she found that the interior of the house was much larger than it had looked from the outside. Naga fit snuggly in the two room house. A bed was next to a small burning fireplace, flanked by two small bookcases. The room to the right was a shadowy kitchen and dining room, decorated with nothing but a few pots and pans along with a sink and cooking stove. Korra couldn't honestly care any less about anything within the house other than the crackling fire in its stone holder. She hadn't even realized just how cold her hands were until the prickling of her skin warming could be felt along the receptors lining the digits. Her bare arms, having left her jacket drying beside the flames, were the first to dry and completely return to their normal temperature. The kind old man came from the kitchen with a mug of some sort of steaming beverage. Korra took it gratefully, taking a few small sips. It was a rather sweet tea that had a way of filtering all traces of the cold stiffness from within her.

"Thank you so much," she happily smiled at her generous benefactor. "I have no idea how I was going to pay for a stay at the inn or whatever place you have here that houses travelers."

The good-natured chuckle that left the man's lips was not unkind, but it still made Korra blush self-consciously. "It is not a problem. I have very few visitors nowadays and it is always nice to see a new face. My name is Hatsuharu by the way."

"K-" Korra cut herself short, not knowing whether she should reveal her identity or not. Back-woods places such as the hamlet most probably had no idea who the Avatar was in the present cycle, but there was always that small chance that the old man was not as unobservant as he seemed.

"You do not have to tell me yours if you do not wish to," Hatsuharu reassured Korra, seeing the troubled look that crossed her jovial face. The thin brown eyebrows relaxed from their scrunched positions and Korra simply nodded in affirmation before taking another gulp of tea.

"So, I do not believe I am a prying man, but I am quite the fool for stories. May I ask what you are doing so far out in the middle of nowhere?" Hatsuharu attempted to rekindle the conversation. He moved to reach for the poker and stir the wood in the hearth for a while, waiting for Korra to reply.

Not seeing any drawbacks in saying a few vague truths, Korra began to regale him with her mission to save her loved one from a gang of bandits who had attacked them. The old man listened intently as she described the ice daggers and Kaji's selfless sacrifice to save her. Korra suddenly felt her throat clog up as she choked back a wave of tears that threatened to overwhelm her. Naga pressed herself against Korra's back, nudging her comfortingly with her nose. It was a little too much for the Avatar and the salty streaks of water began to run freely down her cheeks. She had not let herself cry about Kaji's abduction, too afraid of being seen by Tenzin or the others and having their secret blown to bits. Now, without all of the pressures of appearance and reputation, there was no barrier she could erect that would quell the empty feeling curling itself around her stomach and the breathlessness that took over her lungs. Warm hands grasped her own, surprisingly soft despite all of the wrinkles and calluses. Looking up, she saw Hatsuharu giving her a sympathetic look.

"I am sure that you will both be reunited soon. The red string of fate binds you, I can see it."

Korra could only nod, lost in the truthfulness of the murky depths of the old man's knowing eyes. If only she looked long enough, listened intently enough, then perhaps it would be true. It had to be true. She didn't know what she would do if it wasn't.

Karak's body pressed flat against Kaji. Her mind was still in shock, processing what the hell was happening. She felt his pants bulge against her thigh, no doubt with an erection. Her dulled eyes widened with the gut-wrenching realization of her predicament finally dawning on her. His blonde hair draped along her face pricked into her eyes as he moved to lick around her lips, rocking into her to cause more friction where he needed it. A blinding rage filled her with the ignited chi that gave her the power to spark forth the fire that was in her blood. The man really had no way to defend, or even expect, the sudden rush of indigo flames bursting into his face from the lips that he had been ravishing. He gave a muffled cry of surprise and pain, jumping off of her to rub his singed eyes. Kaji had, of course, not given him any lasting damage as he would prove useful later. Still, it gave her enough time to push herself from the bed and shove him against the rotting wall next to the door. His pupils were dilated in a feeling Karak had not experienced in a long time: pure fear. The golden eyes before him could only be described as primal or reptilian. He tried to move away but a deceptively firm hand placed around his neck kept him in place.

Karak gasped as a warm hand cupped his enlarged dick. The fabric of his pants did nothing to keep him from the iron grasp Kaji had on him so all he could do was stand on his toes and try not to squirm too much. The fanged smile that was given to him was nothing short of Draconic.

"Now that I have your attention," Kaji whispered into his ear, gripping harder to prove her point, "I just wanted to outline a few things for you."

The hands holding him began to heat up. It did not take long before it grew uncomfortable and he was biting his lip to keep from screaming out. Kaji paused for dramatic effect then continued, "The first thing you should know is that I am your commander and ruler, not some whore for your entertainment. Nod if I am understood."

Her lower hand squeezed him until he yelped and shook his head up and down vigorously. Kaji cooed a soft, "Good."

"Second, if you ever, EVER, try something like that again, I swear I will burn you so badly that you will be replacing Koh as the Faceless One. Understood?"

"Y-Yes," Karak gasped.

"And finally, if you do anything to double-cross me because you didn't get what you wanted tonight… well, don't double-cross me," the poison lacing her sickly sweet voice sent shivers up and down Karak's spine. He groaned in pain as he was released. His legs gave out and he slumped against the creaking boards behind him. He couldn't even think; the agony between his legs and around his throat was overpowering.

"Can you get out on your own or do I have to call someone to remove you?" Kaji asked in a cold tone. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, pretending to busy herself with an inspection of her sleeping arrangements. Karak knew that he would be demoted by whoever was chosen to aide him out of the Princess's quarters so he chose to drag himself slowly out of the room. He was thankful that the door had not been fully closed, laying ajar from when he arrogantly pushed it open after he followed Kaji into her room.

"Karak, one more thing," her voice made him tremor involuntarily. He swallowed his paralyzing fear and pain, turning to see what his commander wished of him. He did not trust his vocal chords so all he did was nod. "Please hand me your key."

He pulled out his silver key from his charred pants and dropped it into the pale white hand outstretched for him. He had no intention of touching the woman again if the consequences were to be such.

"Congratulations, you have been promoted to my chambers. I shall take yours for the night. Enjoy," she moved around him as though he were a leper or another type of social pariah.

Sighing when she had left his presence behind, Karak pulled himself back into the dank room that smelled of mold and misuse. As he slumped onto the bed, not giving a damn by that point of the vermin sharing the sheets with him, he couldn't help but crack a small smile. The agony was doubled when a light laugh escaped him, turning into a fit of coughing soon after leaving his bruised bronchi and burnt trachea. _'Do not betray me' she says, _he thought to himself,_ not even a lunatic would betray you Princess._ He had never had such a respect for another person; never had he experienced such cold cruelty with no remorse. That was a leader that he would lay his life down for.

Kaji moved into the room that would have been occupied by that insufferable boy. What the idiot had been thinking, she had no idea. Never had she been taken advantage of like that. The feeling of his mouth on hers made her want to empty the contents of her stomach. She didn't even have her appetite anymore. At least the room that he had chosen was in better shape than the one she had left him in. She had secretly known that he had snuck up to inspect them before anyone else had. When he had done it, she could only speculate. How; she didn't even care to know. Either way, she had had a feeling that he would have picked the best place for himself. Perhaps the lesson had been taught. A small part of her, or maybe not that small, wanted it to not be so just so she could sink her nails into him and make him squirm one more time. Unfortunately, Karak was a valuable tile to hold… able to adapt to whatever gambit she placed on the Pai Sho board. Her hands moved up to her lips, subconsciously reliving the feeling of having him on top of her. The anger returned afresh. _No one touches me like that but Korra,_ she seethed. Astounded at her own thoughts, Kaji tried to backtrack and deny the statement. It was really a stupid attempt though, for the only two people she could never lie to were Azula and herself.

The rain continued to fall through the night. The morning brought a break in the oppressive clouds and a cease in the downpour of the heavens. Before the crack of dawn, a girl and her snow white polar bear-dog set out on the dusty trail, riding far from the confines of the small town and the kind old man who was still fast asleep on his small cot. Had the Avatar turned back even once, she may have spotted the metallic skeleton of a giant ebony zeppelin standing by the edge of a grove of trees, its supports like a giant's bones sticking from the earth. Her eyes, however, were set on the horizon before her.

A few hours later, a disgruntled firebender awoke and roused her entourage. The inn keeper and bartender bid them a safe journey as they departed. The canvas of the balloon was filled with the heated particles of the mixtures of the elements found amongst the air, bouncing wildly with the added kinetic energy of the firebender punching blue flames into the iron coal container. Her irritation was evident with each resounding grunt of effort that accompanied the blasts of flame. Kaji just couldn't believe that her idiot of a navigator had caused them to retrace thirty miles worth of travel in an attempt, unsuccessfully, to outrun the tempest. The lost time did nothing to help her already taut nerves.

A battalion of metalbenders, amongst them a tall serious looking woman, set out from the bustling metropolis. They held one unit that drove over the ground and a smaller scouting group to peruse the skies for signs of a black airship or a missing Avatar on a white arctic beast. A worried airbender watched them disappear into the distance, wishing that his duties would permit him to accompany them. Alas, he had to stay where he was and keep the events of the passing day from becoming a global affair. Somehow Inzei had already found out about the capture of his heir and was demanding suspects and information. The entire situation was a boiling pit of magma and the world was the loose rock sitting over it.

**P.S. I feel like I made Karak a masochistic asshole, but I kinda like writing him. He was a fun character to make up. Dark characters are fun to do. Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and Happy Regular Day of Being Alive to those who don't. Honestly I like celebrating the latter one better because it happens everyday. Review! And I will update sooner.**


	15. Quickening

**A/N: Wow, this chapter did not want to get done. i am so sorry it took me so damn long to update it, and it's so short too. I have a long list of reasons why I was missing for so long- at the forefront being I was with my dad and I don't have a laptop as well as my preoccupation with my new XBox,Skyrim, and Dragon Age Origins. Then there was school. I want to say that I will be releasing the new chapter sson, but it probably won't be before this weekend so I apologize in advance. Please review. Makes me happy.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my awesome OC's who I love so very much.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

The rain continued to fall through the night. The morning brought a break in the oppressive clouds and a cease in the downpour of the heavens. Before the crack of dawn, a girl and her snow white polar bear-dog set out on the dusty trail, riding far from the confines of the small town and the kind old man who was still fast asleep on his small cot.

A few hours later, a disgruntled firebender awoke and roused her entourage. The inn keeper and bartender bid them a safe journey as they departed. The canvas of the balloon was filled with the heated particles of the mixtures of the elements found amongst the air, bouncing wildly with the added kinetic energy of the firebender punching blue flames into the iron coal container.

A battalion of metalbenders, amongst them a tall serious looking woman, set out from the bustling metropolis. A worried airbender watched them disappear into the distance, wishing that his duties would permit him to accompany them. Alas, he had to stay where he was and keep the events of the passing day from becoming a global affair. Somehow Inzei had already found out about the capture of his heir and was demanding suspects and information.

The entire situation was a boiling pit of magma and the world was the loose rock sitting over it.

Republic City was abuzz with excitement and uneasiness. The morning had begun as any other would: uneventful and sluggish with the exception of a few concerned businessmen racing on their way to their work. The sun rose as it always did, the clouds drifted lazily across a crisp atmosphere, and the event of the attack on the World Fair was the news of two weeks ago. No subsequent terroristic actions had been reported. Even the absence of Lin Beifong and half of her men was not enough to compel the hardiest of criminals to try anything. The abductions were still fresh in peoples' minds, but they had been foreigners to the city, or most of them anyway, and thus were not very important.

As the sun rose higher toward its noon position, a curious black band began to break the linear curve of the ocean's horizon. A few fishermen and sailors were the first to spot it, coming at a frightening speed from the southwest. Shouts and messengers soon had the entire urban sprawl aware of the incoming ships. They were too far to classify to a nation, but the proud prows breaking through the waves made their species predictable enough. They were warships. The younger residents were full of energy, anticipating a much needed break from the tandem of their lives, and rushed toward the ports for a glimpse of the flotilla. Elders watched with trepidation, remembering stories of the previous time such naval advances had come to their shores.

Tenzin rushed to the gritty shoreline of his island home. His eyes widened with disbelief and incredulity. Sailing at a ramming speed, ten giant vessels, definitely of Fire Nation origin, were driving through the agitated waves of the once calm bay. The head of each ship had an ornamental golden dragon snarling with bared fangs, the pure metal gliding down along the sides in patterns resembling clouds of smoke before ending to make way for the dark grey iron that embodied the rest of the ship. Men along the decks were running to and from the deck and the bridge. Many stopped to hang at the bars outlining the edge of the deck, pointing at the city coming ever closer to them.

Tenzin swiftly called for a glider from some of the others who had come to see the spectacle unraveling before them. The catch holding the fabric folded within the small hollow at the top of the staff released as the airbender rushed along the sand. Tenzin took a mighty breath and released, propelling himself into the vortex of his element. The glider caught on the breeze that he had synthesized, bearing him down toward a particularly large ship- the one seemingly leading the armada.

He landed in the center of the rustic deck. He did not stop even to regain his balance, instead using his forward momentum to speed toward the tower overlooking him. A few words of exclamation and warning reached his ears from some of the men standing around, but he paid them no heed. Apart from the angry gesturing of the ignored sailors, he faced no rebuttals of his advances and so continued on. The door leading into the interior was open and so were the rest. The stairwell posed no trouble for the lithe Master Airbender- three stories were traversed in mere seconds. Finally there was only the entryway to the room he was interested in barring him from an unsuspecting firebending General and a very long tirade to said General about his actions.

He swirled the glider, now staff, in three large figure-eight arcs. The gusts of wind that issued forth were enough to make a tornado seem like a minor summer breeze. The doors, no matter how solid and thick they appeared to be, were no match against such a force. Nature itself would have quaked, and even buckled, before such a thing. As it was, the metal bent and burst into the room beyond, showering those inside with chunks of loosened metal and a few misplaced bolts. Had they not been wise enough to duck, they would have been in danger of decapitation from the massive blocks of deformed iron that had been the doors as they flew through the entirety of the bridge and out the large windows at the other end. Tenzin swept in with purpose and authority. He glowered at the coughing and gagging crew members, refusing to feel the twinges of guilt that came with shows of excessive power.

A tall figure came out of its hunched position, standing tall against the railing encircling the raised central platform. As the dust cleared, Tenzin found himself lost for words for the second time in an entire fifteen minutes. Instead of the youthful face and golden eyes of General Iroh II that he had been expecting, he came to look upon the bronze hued irises and aged face of his father- the Fire Lord himself.

"I-Inzei," Tenzin said in a hushed voice. It was all he could get out before his brain decided to shut down on him to collect itself.

"Ah, Tenzin. Quite the entrance you have. One of these days you must tell me how you think up of these things," Inzei replied in a patient voice. It was certainly anything but the astonished or frustrated tone that a lesser would take on in the light of having one's ship broken into.

"What are you doing here?" Tenzin had always been one for formalities, however, he found himself justified to skip them at a time such as that one.

"Well, considering neither you, nor anyone else in this accursed kingdom, has deemed me worthy of explaining who has taken my wife's niece- and by extension my own- and why, I decided to take it upon myself to come here and seek the answers."

"Inzei, you bring with you Fire Nation ships!" Tenzin exclaimed. The stupidity of the man before him was almost a physical blow to the poor monk's gut. "It is not like the time when your son was called upon to aide in the fight against the Equalists. This can be seen as an act of aggression!"

"Well then, I suppose it is a good thing I have you on board to straighten out any misunderstandings my presence may have caused."

By the sincere look on Inzei's face, Tenzin could not even comfort himself in thinking it was a joke. He grimaced at the oncoming ulcer or headache or both that the stress was surely going to give him. Shaking his head, he tried to think of something to say that would cause the Fire Lord to turn his fleet around and head for home. Unfortunately, no solution seemed forthcoming.

"Tenzin, I assure you I know the risks of appearing in the Earth Kingdom like this. Seventy years of peace is not enough to erase a century worth of blood and fear… but I need to ensure that my heir is safe. Iroh does not want the crown; the poor boy is so averse to the idea of holding the lives of so many on his shoulders. I cannot simply throw Kaji to the wolves either. She is of my wife's blood, of Roku's line as well. You must understand why I have to do this," Inzei's hand had come to lie upon Tenzin's stooped shoulder. They both seemed to have gained a hundred years in just a few minutes; the shadows playing over their faces casting each wrinkle and dip deeper and more severe than before.

"We must appear before the council. They will decide whether to allow you access to the information that we have gathered," Tenzin brought his hand up to silence Inzei's interjection, "But even in the event that they refuse… I shall tell you all I can. Please, do not do anything rash Inzei. The world's balance is too easily tipped."

"I thank you. We have not known each other for too long of a time, it is true, but I do consider you to be a good friend of mine."

"I am in need of friends more than all else at the moment."

The council meeting was in itself not very long or crowded. In the wake of the abductions- along with Kaji the remaining three representatives of the Southern Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, and Fire Nation were also taken- makeshift representatives of the four nations had been appointed. Tenzin still kept his position and Master Katara had taken over for her tribe. A rich whaler had taken up a position for the North Water Tribe in Aroostook's place- though many did not trust him either due to his predecessor's treachery. The Earth Kingdom position had been filled by another man of wealth, one who was unknown to Tenzin. The Fire Nation seat had been kept empty as there was no one of enough caliber of the nationality within the island to take up the position.

"You have all heard my proposal," Tenzin's soft, but overarching voice rang out from where he stood before the large table seating the emissaries. "What is your decision?"

"Let the man know what he wants," the Earth Kingdom man waved nonchalantly. His foggy eyes were a strange milky blue, a deviation of the crystal clear jade or earthen brown that pervaded his people. "I see no need for all of this damned secrecy."

"You would say that because you have no concern within this matter!" the whaler bit out from his seat. "If it is true that my predecessor was the lead perpetrator, such an action would adversely affect my entire nation!"

"It is everyone's concern at the moment," Master Katara's cool tone froze the rage rising between the two men. "What are your intentions Fire Lord? Should we tell you what we know, what course of action would you take?"

"I cannot answer such a question without seeing the entire picture," Inzei hesitantly answered after a moment's deliberation. "If it is true that the Northern Water Tribe has some part in this fiasco, then I would like to set a course for the pole as soon as I can. I would inquire as to the details of this with Chief Satren to seek aide to find my niece. Other than that, I have no intention to raise tensions."

"The Northern Water Tribe will not be held liable for the actions of one man!" the whaler bellowed.

"Oh yes, even though Aroostook was irrevocably appointed to his position by the Chief himself. It is highly suspect that Satren did not know of the man's plots," the Earth Kingdom stand-in remarked. "If you ask me, I think Satren was the one who endorsed the whole thing. Everyone knows that the Northern Water Tribe is still sore about not getting as many reparations as the Earth Kingdom. And they still hold the biggest grudge against the Fire Nation."

"Gentlemen," Tenzin lifted his hands to signal silence. The delegates glared daggers at each other, forcing their lips to meet in sharp lines and clenched their jaws to keep the fighting words from spilling out. The airbender lowered his arms, tucking them into the long sleeves of his robe. "Whether Aroostook acted alone or was supported by a higher entity-"

"My nation-" the Water Tribe man began to growl only to be interrupted by frigid looks from Katara and Tenzin. He gave off a defeated huff before slumping back into his chair and crossing his arms over his rather thick chest.

"As I was saying; all of our hypotheses are as of yet unable to be proven. And even if we had a definite answer as to who is to blame for this, the central issue before us is the wellbeing of our council members and the Fire Nation Princess."

Katara smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her attire, choosing to stand slowly and ceremoniously. The rest of the four members of the room turned expectantly to hear the elder woman's wisdom. Even the brashness and contempt held by the replacements was held in check behind respect for the wizened waterbender. She was the last of an age they had only heard of in ballads or dusty history tomes.

Clearing her throat to remove a small vestige of apprehension, the Master turned to face Inzei and spoke, "You deserve to know. She is the future of your nation and your presence here emphasizes that you are adamant in having Kaji ascend the throne. From a series of leaflets and reports found on the premises of Councilmember Aroostook, we have been able to conclude that the Princess has most likely been taken to a holding. We have no evidence to suggest where exactly that is, but the most popular conjecture is that it is somewhere in the Northern Water Tribe. As another unexpected complication, the blueprints were taken by the Avatar who has already begun her own search for the missing delegates. Aroostook, until proven otherwise by the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe himself, is still considered tied with the Tribe due to his appointment papers. That is all."

"This is grave news indeed," a new voice came from behind them all. Five heads whipped around to locate the source of the unwelcomed speaker. They all fell upon the form of a petite woman in flowing green robes. Her black hair was held back in a neat bun with two chopsticks made of ornate bronze to match the emblem of the Dai Li that adorned the front of her clothing. Her green eyes were alive with an internal spark of cunning and knowledge that hid beneath. Her small smile was tilted slightly higher on her right side, causing her to appear as though hiding a valuable secret. She strode forward on quiet feet; her shoes were more akin to slippers to muffle the slight pressure she placed on the ground.

Her smile melted into a line of seriousness, the gravity of the meeting seemingly coming upon her slim shoulders. In the same smooth low octave she excused her interruption, "I apologize for my impromptu entrance gentlemen, Masters. " She tilted her head to each of the members of the council whilst bowing to Tenzin, Katara, and Inzei, showing the necessary marks of distinction between their ranks.

"Who are you?" the whaler stood, more in indignation than aggression.

"Ah, I forget my manners at times. I am Izuru Kain, Head of the Dai Li in service to His Highness, the Earth King. At times I forget that my knowledge of all of you does not necessarily go vice versa," the Dai Li agent's veiled cautionary remark had the two master benders and Fire Lord on edge. The other two were more inept to the ways of the elusive agents of the Earth monarch. Even the Earth Kingdom natural-born had only heard stories of the reinstituted group. The rest was, as many hoped in naivety, history.

"What is your business here?" the northern man inquired gruffly. He had had about enough of all of the high and mighty members of global politics and wished to return to his own ring of underhanded capitalists. At least they had incentives he could interpret and depend on.

"Information is my business as it always has been," Izuru answered levelly.

"More specifically?" Tenzin prodded. He held little trust for the Dai Li- something instilled in him at a young age from all of his father's stories- and, if possible, even less trust for their leader.

"In the absence of my King's presence, I am here to be his eyes and ears in this investigation. Though Republic City is outside of our jurisdiction, one of our citizens has been taken by these Water Tribe rogues and thus it has become our concern."

"Well, Miss Kain," Katara said from her upright position. If anything, the few steps that increased her stature might as well have been mountains. The glower she gave the woman before her would have been enough to set one of lesser composition groveling in a corner. As it was, Izuru only graced her with a curious glance. Katara continued unfazed by the disregard of her threat, "it appears that you have now also joined our little party. You no doubt heard all we have revealed to the Fire Lord, and are now aware of everything that we know."

"Brilliant," Izuru clapped her hands together softly in excitement, whether mock or real was indiscernible. "I, however, have something to add to these facts. You may judge the importance and authenticity for yourselves."

The Earth Kingdom spy took a dramatic breathe, closing her eyes as though to bring forth her thoughts and find the best way to pronounce them into words. The bodies around her were deliciously tense with the stress of the moment. Finally, letting go of the palpable anticipation, she spoke, "I took the liberty of sending messages to a few inquirers throughout the continent. All major Earth Kingdom airship ports and a few minor ones have been thoroughly searched for any mention of a zeppelin that fits the description of the one that the perpetrators escaped on. From the few hits that were gathered, I have a hypothetical course that maps out the trajectory of the craft."

Deft hands slid into the large sleeves of the dark emerald and rustic bronze kimono. From the Stygian darkness, a crisp scroll was brought into the light streaming through the windows adorning the room. The small metallic rods that held the paper together were unfurled gently, bringing into sight a map of the Earth Kingdom. Small red dots showed over certain city markers. At first, they seemed to jump around in almost random fashion, zigzagging over each of the large squares that represented the metropolises of the vast country. As one began to follow the consecutive red lines that had been drawn between points, however, a pattern began to become discernible. The shiver that ran down Tenzin's spine was not one of exhilaration at finally having a lead, but one of fear as the course clearly pointed to an unwanted conclusion. As the red rose to the top right hand corner of the map, so did everyone's eyes. Hopes of finding an internal problem disguised as an international issue died with the final dot. It was obvious that the final port that had been docked was the final outpost between the Earth Kingdom and the vast expanse of ocean that would eventually end at the snowy shores of the Northern Water Tribe.

"It still proves nothing!" the whaler, who had begun perspiring bullets, burst out, shattering the horrible silence. The shock, despite the inevitability of coming to that conclusion anyway, was broken with the sound of the man's raucous cry. In a second, all hell was unleashed over their heads.

Inzei growled and swore that he would depart in that instant, making sail for the north, if only to find out what the 'bloody hell' was going on. Tenzin reached for him to try and reason with the man. He was quite aware of the fiery nature of the wielders of the flame and also saw the disastrous repercussions that would follow if Inzei went through with his plans. The two replacement councilmen were at each other's throats, the Earth Kingdom man roaring charges of conspiracy at the Tribesman while the man backfired with insults of his own. Katara was staring at the stone cold face of the Dai Li agent, wandering whether the girl was instigating all of this or whether it was true. She held no doubt that there was a bit of both, but the stagnant eyes gave away nothing and the old woman was forced to move her attention to breaking up the ensuing fight between the two millionaires next to her.

"Silence!" Katara's shout reverberated around the hall, bouncing off the fine creamy marble walls and columns. The noise that had been so prevalent faded in a matter of seconds to a hushed echo. "The fact that they are most assuredly going toward the Northern Water Tribe signifies only that we now know where to look. It is not concretely stated in this that Aroostook is working under orders from Satren, therefore we should keep calm and inform Lin's search party."

"You may be able to ignore this travesty Master," Inzei snarled, "but this is about the honor of my nation and the safety of one of its citizens. I will not sit here and wait for a city police force to attempt to rescue my heir and representative. This is a matter of the Fire Nation and as its leader; I will take responsibility for Princess Kaji's wellbeing and that of my councilwoman."

"If I may be so bold as to request that I accompany you, Fire Lord Inzei," Izuru motioned to herself by placing a hand on her chest, fingers splayed like a spider's web, "My kingdom has also been wronged in this and I must apprehend the criminals that took the voice of the Earth Kingdom."

"The more the merrier," Inzei really could not have cared less who accompanied him. He had taken the insults of not being informed of such pertinent events and having been given a hearing to deem him worthy of such information with a serene façade. He had even ignored the rising prickling in his skin and tightening of his jaw with each word pointing toward the Northern Water Tribe's involvement. To be told how to handle his affairs was too much. The last straw had been placed on his patience and it was ready to crumble.

"I shall come too then," Katara interjected. She was not about to allow such a shady figure near the overly emotional Fire Lord. When they reached the fortress walls of the ice capital on top of the world, she would ensure that no blood was spilt.

"I do not require a baby-sitter, with all due respect Master Katara," Inzei retorted. Normally he would not have been opposed to the presence of such a central figure of diplomacy, but he could see that the waterbender had her own agenda in this.

"Well, requiring it or not, you shall have one. All due respect Inzei," Katara spoke as though to an impudent child. "I am coming."

Tenzin opened his mouth to nominate himself as well. The look his mother gave him stopped him mid syllable, reminding him that Republic City and the international council were ready to collapse under the conspiracy and distrust caused by the abduction and murder that had occurred. He visibly deflated and hung his head, but remained quiet.

"Very well, gentlemen, Tenzin; I will be taking my leave of you," Inzei said no more, choosing to sweep out of the room. The Dai Li woman followed quickly at his heels. Katara looked sadly upon her son, wishing that they would not have been parted so soon, then hurried after the disappearing Fire National.

Tenzin gave a long sigh, wondering how things could have gotten so out of hand so quickly.

Izuru Kain sat in her appointed bunk room under the expansive deck of the Fire Lord's massive ship. The creak of metal and sway of the lamp above her head were obnoxiously distracting her from her writing. She held two sheets of paper against the wooden desk bolted to the iron floor. The ink bottle next to her was held in place by four creases in the metal that she had made using her metalbending. Most were not aware of her ability to perform such an advanced stage of earthbending and she liked to keep it that way. Gazing out over the pitch black environment outside, she mused over the events of the previous few days.

It had been a few hours for her to brainwash Aroostook. After that, she had left the dark airship, keeping her absence known only to Kaji and Karak. The former had given the orders that Izuru was to follow until their next rendezvous and the latter had undoubtedly figured it out soon after. She had then traveled to the capital, Ba Sing Se, and informed the Earth King of the kidnapping of his representative in Republic City. It had not been difficult to manipulate him into officially sending her into the field. She had taken the next train to the city-state. So far everything had gone according to plan. Kaji's calculations had an uncanny quality about them in how accurate they turned out to be. Izuru found the firebender to be quite the enigma. And anything she couldn't understand was something Izuru Kain wanted to have under her fingers, dissecting every part of it to figure out how it worked. She was not loyal to the Fire Princess, nor did the Princess trust her. For the moment though, she was content in acting the foot soldier and Kaji was magnificent in her role as the general.

The letter was finished and tucked into the small envelope holder that was tied around the hawk's leg. Izuru had no particular love for animals, but she understood the ingenuity in utilizing them when they had become such an outdated form of mail currier. The window had been originally bolted shut to keep the ship from filling in with water too quickly were it too be punctured hung open. Its previously bolted state had been easily remedied with her particular talents, and now the hawk was easily able to slip out of the gaping porthole and into the night. It would take a few days to reach the zeppelin, but they had time. Kaji was at least a good few weeks ahead of the Fire Lord and his small fleet. Now all that was left was to wait and observe. The waterbender held a new sort of challenge, but Izuru was convinced that she would find a way to exploit the old woman in some shape or form.

As the waves rocked the great hunk of metal, the tired green eyes shut in the final capitulation to sleep. Vigilant blue ones looked over the calm sea, sensing a hidden unrest within the small spirits that made their homes under the leagues of water. Katara never saw the messenger hawk leave the ship, but somehow she sensed something amiss. Her lids drooped and she begrudgingly returned to her cabin to appease her body's need for rest.

**P.S. Yes, I know. So short, so uninteresting. But it had to be done. I really am horrible at transition chapters and one day they will invent a telepathically activated software that fills in the blanks to my stories automatically. Until then however, I have to think of them myself. Review! I feel somewhat unloved by how few there have been. Not that I don't appreciate all I get but... more please!**


	16. What Binds Us

**A/N: Hello people! I am updating and it feels amazing even though I should really be working on my homework but hey, screw it. You guys are a lot nicer than my teachers anyhow. Anyway, hope you enjoy. Review please!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, but maybe one day when aliens discover Earth they may attribute all of ALOK's genuis to me on a fluke. Until then, I only own the OC's.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Before the crack of dawn, a girl and her snow white polar bear-dog set out on the dusty trail. A few hours later, a disgruntled firebender awoke and roused her entourage. The canvas of the balloon was filled with the heated particles of the mixtures of the elements found amongst the air, bouncing wildly with the added kinetic energy of the firebender punching blue flames into the iron coal container. A battalion of metalbenders, amongst them a tall serious looking woman, set out from the bustling metropolis.

"You may be able to ignore this travesty Master," Inzei snarled, "but this is about the honor of my nation and the safety of one of its citizens. I will not sit here and wait for a city police force to attempt to rescue my heir and representative. This is a matter of the Fire Nation and as its leader; I will take responsibility for Princess Kaji's wellbeing… and that of my councilwoman."

"If I may be so bold as to request that I accompany you, Fire Lord Inzei," Izuru motioned to herself.

"I shall come too then," Katara interjected.

Kaji was at least a good few weeks ahead of the Fire Lord and his small fleet. Now all that was left was to wait and observe.

The frozen wastelands stretched before them as far as the eye could see and beyond. The pale horizon held barely a contrast between the pasty clouds that covered all above the ice and the tundra itself. The ship chugged along lazily through the mists and fog, blending completely with the chalky environment. Kaji stood at the helm, impatiently awaiting their arrival at the small compound located, strategically, a few miles away from the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe. It was far enough away to be obscure to the guard- which happened to have become less astute after seven decades of peace despite the Tribe's continued distrust of the rest of the world- and yet no one would think to look so close to such a central location for a hideout of people not wishing to be found. There was also the added bonus of the misconception that Aroostook had chosen the spot to conveniently keep in touch with the main governing body whilst keeping his prisoners in check. As for the ship itself, they had traded in the older one for one of a better camouflage and more extensive prisoner quarters in order to secretly and securely cross the border between the sea and the glistening polar continent. Kaji had of course been chained to the procession of the other councilmen and women as they were, rudely, escorted aboard the new vessel. She was still somewhat surprised and disappointed at how docile they had been. She did not need complications, but a show of strength would have been appreciated. Instead those old crones had done nothing other than sniffle and shuffle into their new cages. The doors had been bolted and barred and it had been the end. It was currently three days after their swift departure from the small Earth Kingdom dock.

On the other hand, Kaji had enjoyed the news that Izuru had attached herself to the Fire Lord's entourage. Inzei's hot temper had been expertly veiled during her stay at the capital; however, Azula had taught her how to pick out the finest detail. The minute ticks he would get when exasperated by a particularly irritating senator or businessman were enough of an indication. The water witch's presence had been an unforeseen hiccup, something that was increasingly bothering the Princess. Katara had proven to be a worthwhile opponent, even if the woman was not aware of the game quite yet. She had a certain perception about people. Thinking back to some of the stories she had heard about the younger version of the waterbender, Kaji couldn't help but question the statement slightly. The Jet incident did not inspire much in confidence with Katara's abilities. Perhaps it was the age that had sharpened them. A counterintuitive evolution as most senses dulled in times of peace and senility.

Golden eyes snapped back to the snowy carpet on the underside of the glass dome, convex from where she was standing. The small, ice-covered concrete building she was looking for came into view on the far right side of her vision. She did not turn to it, rather waited for the airship to adjust its course until it was central. They descended quickly, landing in a flurry of little flakes. Alone they may have been unique, but clumped together Kaji was unimpressed by their uniformity. As the chill hit her and pervaded her body, all she wanted to do was burn the entire overgrown iceberg until it was nothing but the barren rock beneath.

"Keep the prisoners on board for now," Kaji ordered. "I must speak to Alistair. Guard them well."

The men nodded. Most were of the Tribes, one or the other, and were accustomed to the weather. Their clothes were light in comparison to the Earth Kingdom natives and Kaji herself. They were to be the ones who would be most suited for all things to do with protection and fighting whilst they remained in the ice lands. Three took up posts outside of the airship. The rest were either inside or became part of the seven that escorted their leader into the holding post. Karak followed close behind Kaji, giving her cursory glances every now and then as though trying to assess her mood.

"If you have something to say, say it. Use your tongue or I'll have it cut off as it serves no purpose," Kaji growled quietly, her temples throbbing in annoyance.

To further her bad mood, the impudent man chuckled. Karak's eyes glistened with unbridled mirth as he spoke in a hushed whisper, "I do not doubt you my Lady. I was merely trying to figure out if you are still upset with me."

"You have done nothing to warrant my wrath since our last little… encounter. I am not one to hold a grudge," Kaji replied evenly.

"Ah, that is good to hear. My worries have been abated," Karak made an exaggerated sigh, as though something heavy had been lifted from his dark shoulders. The tanned skin rippled and expanded under the tight parka he was wearing before loosening again.

"Do not get too comfortable lest you forget the lesson," Kaji warned. They had reached the front gate and their banter ceased as she stepped forth and assertively pounded on the hunk of plaster and stone.

"Princess, we have been expecting you," a tall bark-skinned man stood with his arms crossed in front of the entrance that had revealed itself with the opening of the door. His long light brown hair fell in a mixture of braids and free tangles over the massive shoulders and bulging biceps, hiding the penetrating dark indigo eyes.

"I would have hoped that your security had been better than this, Alistair," Kaji chided. Her signature smirk had left in the wake of a critical scowl. "What if it had not been me?"

"My spies informed me of your presence. Rest assured that if it had not been you who had stepped out of that airship, you would have been dead.

Kaji's grin reappeared across her ruddy complexion. The blasted cold had dilated all of the damned blood vessels in her face staining her cheeks a cherry hue. She had picked out the hidden waterbenders lying in wait for them only a few feet before reaching the door. The only giveaway had been a brief flicker of movement across the usually static surroundings. Approvingly she placed a gloved hand on the large bare forearm of the man before her. "Yes, I must learn not to doubt you."

A booming laugh broke out from his barrel-sized chest. Alistair grabbed the unwitting firebender into a crushing embrace saying, "Not doubt? You would not be Kaji without that innate skepticism of yours."

"Unhand me barbarous fool," Kaji growled, her voice completely muffled by a mouthful of fur that adorned the cut-off sleeves against which she was being pressed. Louder she barked, "I have arrangements to discuss."

"Of course. Your formality is just as atrocious as your sarcasm."

Alistair moved aside and allowed the small party into the fire lit room beyond. The building held few windows, and those were only big enough to allow for snipers or long-range gunmen to aim and shoot out of. Therefore, despite it being quite light outside, the interior of the structure needed twenty-four hour illumination. Electricity had still not replaced the popular kerosene or whale-oil lamps that hung on every wall. Kaji felt the prickling sensation of warmth flooding into her numbed appendages. She cursed to herself that if she lost a toe the entire Arctic Circle would have hell to pay. Luckily for both, she was soon able to fully flex all ten of the digits inside of her fur-lined boots.

"Are the cells ready?" Kaji inquired, sitting on one of the three ratty sofas that had been placed by the large fireplace to the far right of the room. The rest of the place was mostly empty, doors leading into the adjacent rooms and staircases leading to the top floor and the basement.

"Yep. Are you sure you want to be in them though? I mean, if you think that it was cold outside…" Alistair shivered reflexively just thinking about the dismally cramped cellar that had been converted into a makeshift dungeon.

"I," Kaji couldn't help her expression darkening at the prospect of not having any heat for however long she would be kept down there, "will do what I must to keep up all pretenses."

"Very well then. Any other orders?" Alistair looked down in concern at the nineteen year-old girl in front of him. She was so young and small in comparison to him, but her eyes made his insides churn with barely concealed apprehension. He did not want to see the girl hurt; on the other hand he liked his skin on his body and not strewn on the ground as a welcome mat under her feet.

"None. Continue as planned. You know what to do depending on which one of our lucky opponents reaches us first, yes?"

"Yes Princess."

Without further words spoken, Kaji begrudgingly exited the comfortable heat of the building and returned to the metallic depths of her flying machine. Her expensive furs were removed and burned-replaced with a tattered version of the dress she had worn to the festival almost a month ago, the biting iron shackles claimed her fine wrists and ankles, and the final touch of a few well-placed bruises and cuts courtesy of Karak prepared her for her convergence with the other prisoners. She wished that her cheeks were a bit hollower from lack of nourishment or sleep, but alas she had to work with what she had. The others came in a line; first hobbled the Earth Kingdom man, then the firebender, Kaji herself, and the Southern Water Tribesman as the rear. A smiling Aroostook followed them, guarded by five men.

"Wait, wait. Stop them," his deep voice was an abomination of its former self. Frigid with black humor, laced in venom, and grinning maniacally before the ragged assortment of delegates, he beckoned to one of the men escorting him. "Let's have a bit of fun with them before locking them up like the rabid dogs they are. Drag them across the ice to the holding cells."

The man hesitated only a moment, afraid to look at the  
firebender among the others; his true mistress. He would not be the one to reveal her elaborate scheme, but he also did not want to be charred into an unrecognizable clump of ashes if he did what Aroostook wanted.

"Did you not hear me man?" Aroostook questioned dangerously.

The poor waterbender finally gave in and quickly glanced at Kaji for affirmation. Her head tilted down ever so slightly and he had his answer. He bowed his head to the Northerner before strutting over to the assemblage of prisoners. He roughly kicked the backs of their knees until they were kneeling on the ground. They were then grabbed by the hair or scalp and pushed onto the ground; the crunch of the hardened ice crystals beneath their faces and bodies was soon replaced by a stinging, sogginess that only made the wind cooler. The iron links became taut as a particularly large earthbender began to pull their bodies toward the small two-story building. Kaji gritted her teeth, hating how well Izuru's brainwashing worked. The man was a complete monster, exactly per her orders. There was no time for regret now though, so she clenched her jaw and tried to ignore the wetness of the blood that was starting to leak out of her torn skin.

The cells in the cellar were honestly just iron boxes, tall enough vertically to keep a person standing. In width, they were just enough to fit a man's shoulders and leave some room for breathing. Kaji's smaller form afforded her more movement; that was until they chained her. She did not want to be afforded any accommodation. Her arms were bound over her head, attached to the slab of metal behind her. Large chords wrapped around her chest in an 'x' pattern, cutting into the already tender flesh. Lastly, her legs were secured in a similar manner to her hands, against the brazen iron behind her. Kaji's arms and most of her legs were bare to the elements, though she was thrown a rather thin blanket. The others got them too so the gesture did not to appear as favoritism. The man before her had his face hidden by a thick scarf to ward off the sickeningly chill air that flooded every crevice of the place. His eyes were the last thing the Fire Princess saw before the heavy cage was sealed and the only opening was a small sliver that would provide her with oxygen. It was not the perfect, or even desirable, place to be, but somehow she had a feeling that Korra was not far away and she could not afford to have her conspiracy unveiled to the girl.

Korra stood against the railing of the small steamer as it chugged along the choppy waves of the northern sea. She had been lucky enough to find someone willing to take her across the ocean so close to the middle of fall. To be honest, it might as well have been winter already up there. The leaves had been so green, but three weeks heading into the cooler regions of the globe had them turning amber, crimson, and gold before her very eyes. She could only believe that the spirits were guiding Naga's feet because there was no other way that it would have been possible for the polar bear-dog to have made the distance in the five weeks that she had. To have run across the entirety of the Earth Kingdom was no small feat after all. The toll was evident in the way the poor animal was lounging on the deck of the rickety vessel. Naga hadn't had enough energy to even crack open an eyeball and they had been out on the water for eight days now.

Korra's nerves were too jittery to allow her to get even a wink of sleep. It had been a total of six weeks since she had left Republic City. Six weeks that Kaji had been gone. Six weeks that she was in the hands of some madman, or the like. Korra shut her eyes to regain some composure before she broke down into sobs again. She had been getting better about stemming the waterworks over the past few days- there was no need for the captain to start asking questions- but she was still a wreck on the inside. A worried, lonely, overly energetic wreck with nothing to do. Not for the first time did Korra debate as to whether she should bend the currents to turn the sluggish vessel into a new-age speedboat. The idea died almost as soon as she came back to it. There was no use in expending what little she had left before even hitting the Northern Water Tribe. And once she did, she still had no fucking clue where to start looking.

It was melancholically funny that she didn't even feel any excitement in coming 'home.' She hadn't been away for all that long if she was going to be honest. Had it been a year? Certainly. Probably. Maybe. It didn't matter.

"Port is in sight Miss," the short, balding little fisherman came up behind her. She gave an embarrassed little squeak at his sudden materialization out of nowhere.

"Th-thank you," Korra mustered out between chattering teeth. _I seriously need to relax,_ she mused before walking over to the catatonic figure of her pet.

"Come on Naga, time to get up," Korra yelled into the dog's ear whilst pushing at the behemoth shoulder. There was no response to any of her efforts. "Come on you big mutt! We have to go!"

Naga grumbled and turned over so that she was out of Korra's arm's reach. The Avatar grumbled and moved forward, not ready to capitulate yet. She gave the animal an affectionate, if not a tad bit rough, kick against the heaving side. An annoyed whine was her only answer, but a few minutes later, Naga was attempting to lift herself up. In the case of the overworked polar bear-dog, fifth time was the charm.

"Good girl," Korra cooed. Naga grumbled but accepted the apologetic ear rub with grace. "I promise I won't ride you for another few hours 'kay? I still have to figure out where I'm going to start looking for Kaji anyway."

It was a rather daunting prospect.

The Northern Water Tribe had not been changed much over the past seventy years. The great wall had been repaired by the waterbenders to its former glory before the Fire Nation's siege, though it still paled in comparison to the glacial walls surrounding three quarters of the city. The barrier would be split to allow the commercial vessels access to the small docks, made entirely of ice, which led up to the small fishing houses. The buildings had also been made entirely of ice as was custom. Oil lanterns hung, extinguished in the midday sunlight, from small holsters embedded into the solid walls. Above Korra's small form, the rings of the central city stacked atop each other until they came to their zenith: The formidable and beautiful ice palace. The home of the Water Tribe Chief and his family. Korra scrunched her nose in suppressed laughter when she remembered the fussy and awkward Prince Yun. She wondered if she would run into him, secretly begging Tui and La that she did not.

The boat's captain bid her luck in her travels, taking the last bit of money that she had stowed away in her saddle bags. The rest of the journey would have to be made with all of her survival instincts at maximum. She looked back at the castle rising over the heads of all who lived in the capital. She couldn't seek held from the Chief as that would alert Tenzin of where she was. Tenzin could already be there as well, or Lin, or anybody else who could keep her from her mission. No, the royals of the Tribe were out. With no other informants, and no way to ask around without bringing in unwanted attention to herself, Korra was forced to rely on the only method left for her. She would have to go into the Spirit World and seek aide from the previous Avatars or any other entity willing to help her.

Seeking a secluded place where she wouldn't be disturbed, Korra decided on a little teashop hidden between two taller buildings close to where she had been let off. There were enough patrons there to hide her presence from onlookers, but not too many where she would be hard pressed for concentration. She quickly scrounged out a copper coin from one of her many pockets and pouches, glad that she had enough to actually purchase something. She would have been somewhat depressed if she had been kicked out for not being able to pay.

The steaming cup filled with deep amber liquid was beautifully warm against her hands. Korra didn't want to admit it, but she was finding that acclimatizing back to the frigidity of the Northern Water Tribe was a bit more difficult than habituating herself to the humid heat of Republic City had been. Soon though, she was lost to her own thoughts; leaving her body in the confines of the small corner of the quaint little house while her spirit ascended into the reaches of the world only she could access.

"What is it Korra?" a kind looking monk with the blue arrow markings of the air nomads asked her as soon as she made her presence known to her past lives.

""Aang, I didn't expect to find you so soon," Korra stuttered. "I- I know it's been a while…"

"It has, but that is nothing to worry about. I am not offended by your wish to be left to your own thoughts. I had the same feelings many times throughout my life," the kind-hearted man beckoned for her to come closer to him. "Now tell me, what is it you wish to ask me?"

"I- I need to find someone. I don't know where they are or how I'm supposed to get there. I don't know anything really. Is there any way that I can locate he- the person I'm looking for through the Spirit World?"

"Such matters are a little beyond me. I would know how to take you to a place in a matter of seconds or to locate a needle within a haystack the size of the Earth Kingdom, but if you do not know where the place is or what the needle looks like, it becomes complicated."

"There has to be some way to do it though?" Korra prodded. She had run out of options. She knew that she could always start sweeping every square mile of the continent, but that was not a plausible solution at the moment.

Avatar Aang's face scrunched up in concentration. He looked at the disparaged look Korra was giving him, pleading with him for something she could use. His eyes lit up with an idea before quickly deepening into an expression of something like fear.

"What is it?" Korra hadn't missed the exchange of feelings flitting across his visage. "You know something don't you?"

"I do not know how to help you Korra," her face fell until Aang continued, "but I know someone who might."

"Who!?" Korra was ecstatic.

"Koh, the Faceless One. When I came to the Northern Water Tribe in search of answers about Zhao's mission, it was he who told me about Tui and La's mortal forms. If there is a way to find your missing person, Koh would know of it," Aang stated after some hesitation.

"He is very dangerous Korra," he continued when he saw that determined face that he knew so well as one of his own when he was a boy. "You must show no emotion when confronting him. He is the Face Stealer for a reason. You must be cautious when approaching him."

"Where is he?" Korra asked. She could feel the talons of fear sink into the lower part of her gut, but she also felt the throb of hope pulsing through her heart and blood. If Koh was the one who had the answers, then she would go to him.

"He is under an ancient tree within the depths of the Spirit World. I will take you, but I can go no further than the entrance."

"Let's go then," Korra clenched her fingers into fists, knowing that her resolve was slipping with each passing breath.

Aang nodded and shifted his shape into one of a very large, very fuzzy flying lemur. His ears twitched with worry as the young girl clambered up onto his back. Korra herself was barely containing her laughter at the airbender's animal spirit. She knew that Roku was a dragon and Kyoshi had probably been something likewise as formidable. To be a giant lemur was, well, quite frankly embarrassing. Still, she held her tongue, not wishing to offend the only person who was able to take her to Koh's lair.

They flew at a speed that was only possible within the inner circles of the Spirit World. Only those most disciplined could reach their marked destinations in mere minutes. Aang was the epitome of disciplined and made it in seconds. The gnarled roots that twined around each other looked like the arthritic fingers of some malevolent being that had warped so much as to be indiscernible from each other. The rank swampy atmosphere held a yellowish, sulphuric pigmentation. It was enough to send chills down Korra's backbone. Her legs were shaky and she held herself steady by grasping at the fur of Aang's animal form.

"He is within," was all the previous Avatar said as he converted back into his human form. He looked down at Korra, noticing the tremors running through her. Korra bit down on her lower lip to keep it from quivering. She collected all of her thoughts in one breath, surprised that the smell was as fresh as any alpine air. Her mind cleared and her facial muscles relaxed into a mask of apathy. It would be her only aegis against Koh's wiles and she could not afford to let it slip.

Letting go of Aang's sleeve, Korra entered the cavernous maw that was the entrance into the heart of the oak. Within, it was dark and dank. The heavy air began to press into her lungs, causing her to want to cough in order to expel the excess water buildup. Korra stubbornly suppressed the urge, afraid any movement of her jaw would cause her to lose herself to the villainous spirit lurking within.

"Koh?" she said, her voice in the same tone as Kaji's tended to get whenever she was talking to anyone she didn't want to associate with.

Something flashed behind her and then above. She kept her eyes straight ahead of her, refusing to acknowledge the need to flee from the forsaken place. A crackle of twigs and dead branches to her right made her pause. She knew he was there, looking, waiting. She would wait for him as well.

The duel of silence and intimidation stretched for what seemed like hours but could have easily been minutes or seconds before the hideous things reared itself out of its crevice. Korra fought back the revulsion that was crawling up her throat along with the contents of her stomach at the sight of the massive, centipede body of the resident of the tree. The shiny black exoskeleton was moist with small droplets of water, making it even sicklier in appearance. The underside was a dark green, broken by beige legs that stuck out like sharp projections of rock or bone. Within a red, muscular oval in the center of the head was a white face. It was obviously that of a female Noh mask, complete with dark vermillion lips, large eye circles and two small ovular ebony eyebrows high on the forehead. It was smiling in a creepy way, sort of like a predator and yet not. Definitely more ominous than any predator in the animal kingdom.

"Ah, yet another Avatar here to test their prowess against me," Koh's voice was slimy, just like his body. It stuck to the walls surrounding them, dripping in the sap coming from the breaks in the bark and in the droplets of water sliding along the rough branches and trunk.

"I want you to locate something for me," Korra stated plainly. The sooner it was over, the sooner she could leave.

"Yes, that Kaji girl. She really is a wonder. Oh how I wish I could acquire her face," the centipede thing rubbed its pincer together in a show of delight. The spiked tail curled back in on itself and then smacked into the ground with a resounding slap. "If I help you, what do I get in return?"

"I don't kick your giant bug ass is what you get," the threat didn't sound quite as menacing when said in a monotone, but Korra couldn't afford any other octave.

"Oh? I'm sorry if I do not quake in fear," Koh laughed. The sound was akin to the grating of nails against a chalkboard. "How about we play a game instead? A wager really. I will tell you how to find the firebender, but you have to come back here to me when I call upon you. Then, I will tell you the terms of the bet."

Korra did not like the way that the thing talked to her, the way its pasty face contorted into a distortion of glee with each syllable. She could see no other option available to her though. The longer she stayed, the more chance it had of overwhelming her, not to mention that she had no idea how she was supposed to fight something like the ancient spirit. All she had left was to acquiesce to its demands.

"I agree. Now tell me where Kaji is."

Koh's smile, if possible, grew even wider. It was to the point that it was splitting the Noh mask in two. "That is a very wise decision Avatar. Very well. When you leave this place, you will see a faint red cord that goes from your heart into the horizon. Follow it and it will lead you to the Fire Princess. Take note of the way for you will have to return to you physical body in order to reach her."

"Thank you," Kaji spun around to go. She was almost out into the placid artificial 'sunlight' that marked the outside world when she heard a whisper from behind her. The thing's face was so close to her that she could feel the rancid gusts of air coming from its mouth on her ear.

"Be careful of that girl. I may be the master of faces, but she is not very far behind. What you may think you see may be a mirage created for you by her ploys."

Korra doubled her pace until she was running through the opening in the twisted brambles around her. Her face collided with the soft material of Aang's clothing. She gripped at it and began to shake, all of the pent up fear and relief bursting forth. The man's arms wrapped around her trembling form, waiting out the waves of panic that washed over her.

Korra rubbed at her swollen eyes, puffy with the remaining tears that streaked down her cheeks. She smiled reassuringly at his questioning gaze. The silver eyes that looked down at her with such caring and selflessness made her want to just stay within his safe embrace. Unfortunately, she had prior engagements that kept her from forgetting herself in the Spirit World.

"Did you find what you needed?" Aang inquired. His tone was gentle, but earnest. He wanted to be informed of Koh's message.

"Yeah, I did," Korra smiled. It was small and not at all secure, but it was a start.

"Good, at least you didn't go in for nothing. What did he want in exchange?"

"He… I don't know. He just said that he would call on me one day for a wager of some sort. I… I had to agree. I didn't know how long I was going to hold out there," Korra suppressed the sobs that were resurfacing.

"Koh is not someone to underestimate. Whatever this wager is, it will not be a benevolent thing. Be wary Korra. Keep your heart strong in preparation for your next meeting."

"I will, thank you Aang," Korra promised. She looked down at her chest then. Just as the spirit had said, a thin, barely visible red tread stretched its way into obscurity among all of the gases and clouds surrounding the area.

"I see you have the red string of fate connecting you two. It is a powerful bond Korra," Aang said sagely.

"I guess I'll just have to follow it and see where it leads me won't I?" Korra took a hold of the tiny strand, hoping that by touch she would not lose it.

"Call upon me if you need any help," Aang offered before disappearing and leaving the newest Avatar to walk along the path assigned to her by her Ariadne's thread.

Korra found herself walking through the spectral equivalents of the houses of the Water Tribe capital. She had no idea how she had suddenly gotten there after having been in the swamp only moments before. Still, she didn't need to remember that. This was the part that was important now.

Two elevator systems had been put into place that crawled up the mighty glacial bulwark. One ran from the left of the city, the other from the right. Both could easily be unhooked and made unusable in times of invasion, but also acted as evacuation platforms as well. Korra brought down the lever, marveling at how speedily the mechanism shot her up toward the beginning of the snowy wastes.

The string continued on to the North. Korra's feet began to hit the ground with increased velocity and fervor until she was running. She had no landmarks or points of distinction with which to gauge her progress, yet she had a feeling that she would not get lost. The uniformity of the uninhabited lands around her was broken by the façade of a simply boxy building. The concrete was certainly a variation to the usual ice houses, but it was definitely more secure. Korra slipped through the door, not worrying about walls in her astral form. The rooms were exactly as they had been on the scrap of paper that she still had back with her body. The stairs leading down to the cellar were simple enough to find. Within the chamber below, Korra saw the four prison cells. They reminded her of Tarrlok's betrayal and her kidnapping. The images in her mind made her cringe. The string pointed to the one at the end of the row to her left. Korra reached for the handle, embedded into the door and undoubtedly bolted shut. Her fingers slipped through the metal as though it were water. Within she was met with a sight that caused her stomach to fold in on itself. Kaji was hanging from her hands, drenched in her own blood that had caked over her skin and dried. Her lips were blue and her face was that of a ghost. Her hair was laced with ice crystals, sticking out in hard locks or plastered to her face. Her breathes were shallow and held the only signs of life.

"Kaji," Korra murmured. Her hands reached out to cup the girl's frozen cheeks. She didn't expect a reaction, but the sheer lack of heat, especially from the firebender, was alarming.

"Kaji," Korra choked out once more. She knew that she would not be heard. She knew. Still, she couldn't just leave without a sign, a hint of the former fire held within the skin of the beautiful girl in front of her.

As if on cue, the two golden eyes snapped open. Korra backed away slightly- still keeping her hands on Kaji's face- unsure as to whether Kaji actually saw her or if it was simply a coincidence. The intensity of the two eyes on her made Korra think that it was something more than a fluke. Kaji tilted her head into Korra's hands, first to the right, then left. Korra gulped down her tears. She did not want Kaji, if the girl could in fact see her, to witness her crying. She had to be strong.

"I will find you," Korra promised after a while. It was painful to take her hands away from the forlorn figure of the Princess. Korra's only simile to describe the experience was as though half off her spirit was being ripped away from her to stay with the girl in the sub-zero dungeon. "I will find you."

Racing back to her body, Korra let herself fill the empty shell that had been her physical form. Her tea had long since cooled into icy sugar-water. She grabbed her jacket from where she had flung it on the seat and ran through the door. Naga was waiting expectantly for her. Korra gave the polar bear-dog a hug before mounting her and spurring her toward the massive elevators.

To the North, Kaji's eyes stared at the metal door in front of her as though she could rip apart the veil of the Spirit World with her thoughts alone. She had known that Korra had been there. She hadn't actually seen her, but the touch she had felt, the presence was unmistakable.

"So it was you," she sighed. "I knew it would be you."

**P.S. Ariadne was the woman who gave Theseus the ball of yarn to guide him through the minotaur's maze, just fyi for those who didn't get the reference. Next chapter Korra and Kaji are reunited! Hope to write it soon. Reviews help motivate me.**


	17. Middle Game

**A/N: Hello! It has been so long, almost a week. I apologize (seems I've been doing that a lot lately). I blame school and Math Analysis. It is fun, but sooo time consuming. I also have to go to my dad's for two weekends in a row so this Saturday is officially not a fanfiction workday. I promise I will work on the next installment soon. Review so I can feel the love and not think my life is a waste.**

**Disclaimer: Same as ever. Don't sue me, I have no money.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Korra looked down at her chest then. Just as the spirit had said, a thin, barely visible red thread stretched its way into obscurity among all of the gases and clouds surrounding the area. The string continued on to the North. The uniformity of the uninhabited lands around her was broken by the façade of a simple boxy building. The concrete was certainly a variation to the usual ice houses, but it was definitely more secure. Korra slipped through the door, not worrying about walls in her astral form.

The stairs leading down to the cellar were simple enough to find. Within the chamber below, Korra saw the four prison cells.

Kaji was hanging from her hands, drenched in her own blood that had caked over her skin and dried. Her lips were blue and her face was that of a ghost. Her hair was laced with ice crystals, sticking out in hard locks or plastered to her face. Her breathes were shallow and held the only signs of life.

"Kaji," Korra murmured. Her hands reached out to cup the girl's frozen cheeks. She didn't expect a reaction, but the sheer lack of heat, especially from the firebender, was alarming.

As if on cue, the two golden eyes snapped open.

"So it was you," Kaji sighed. "I knew it would be you."

Naga's paws pounded against the poofy coalition of recently fallen snow. The prints left behind were quickly covered by a myriad of small crystals as they settled down in a gentle fashion. Korra's breath came out as a white cloud, contrasting only in its relative solidity in comparison to the thinner veil of ice that hung in the air in lattices so small that no human eye could make them out. The wind rushing into her lungs with each intake of air, stinging her lungs as would a thousand needles. Naga too, had taken to filling her body with oxygen through her nose instead of her mouth. The polar bear-dog's fur disappeared into the similarly colored environment, hiding her from the sight of most. Korra, in contrast, silently admonished her foul luck in not being able to procure something less visible than her varying shades of blue. The jacket she had donned was at least light, rimmed with white fur around the hood and sleeve opening. Her pants were of a similar placid hue. Unfortunately, the scarf she had put on, to cover the majority of her face, and the gloves and boots that protected her appendages from the weather were indigo and black respectively.

The only demonstration of movement was the bunching of muscles underneath her. Had she stayed static, Korra knew that the landscape would look a mirror image of the dynamic one they traversed. All there was to see for miles was open, white, stillness and wilderness. The passage of time was also a tell-tale sign that she was not lost within a void. They had left late in the afternoon and travelled through the night; it being early morning at the moment. The days were growing shorter with the oncoming change of seasons. The animals had all begun their descent into dormant slumber that came with the ending of autumn and the onslaught of the subzero winter months on top of the world. The miles ran on and on as one. Just as Korra was beginning to doubt her intuition and spirit-induced guidance, her eyes fell upon the unfamiliar spectacle of stone amidst the stagnant ice and snow.

"Easy Naga," Korra whispered into the ear of her animal. To anyone else, her voice was carried away by the sudden cruel wind that blew in a southward direction. Naga's teeth bared themselves from under her raised lips. She sensed something; a malignant smell of many bodies lying in wait for something.

"Keep downwind of them girl. Lead me to the nearest one," Korra patted Naga lovingly. She knew that being on the animal at that point was only folly. She would be too conspicuous and restricted in her bending. Gritting her teeth, Korra moved to get undone from her saddle. Her legs had been frozen into place against the animal's mighty heaving sides. The clumps of snow were raked off by her clumsy, half-frozen hands until she was able to kick the rest off. Once she was on the ground, Naga shook the rest in a quick spasm of her spine. Placing her large black nose to the ground, them sticking it into the air, the polar bear-dog turned to the right and began to growl. Korra nodded in understanding. The first sentry was close.

Stalking, as low to the ground as she could manage without losing the necessary speed for a surprise attack, Korra began to creep toward the direction of the danger lurking in the snow. Her back was hunched, her knees bent so they were hitting her chest every time her boot hit the frozen tundra beneath her. Her hands were in constant movement, swinging for balance and brushing fingertips against the ground to keep feeling in her fingers. The inner fire she could always feel was heating her core, spreading from her chest through her major arteries into her legs and arms.

The lump was nearly indiscernible. It could have been an outcropping of rock covered in the infinite blanket that enveloped the entire landscape. That is, it could have been had it not moved ever so slightly. He was lying on his stomach, a gun- hunting rifle- positioned before him, resting on his right shoulder. His eyes moved repeatedly from the long-range scope on the top of the weapon to either side of him in an attempt to cover all blind spots. Korra, ever the impulsive one, barely thought to provide herself with some cover in time before his sharp eyes moved over to her. A second soon enough it was, for to him, she was nothing but a flurry of ice that had been wrenched from the ground in a flurry of air. In the moment where he turned away from her to observe his other flank, Korra pounced. Her hands found the top of his neck and the underside of his chin, both of which she wrenched violently in opposite directions until she heard the click that came with the slight dislocation of the spinal cord. It wasn't enough to kill him; meant more for incapacitation. He would not be waking up for a good few hours.

Korra gave a small whistle, something that was to be lost to all ears but the most sensitive. As expected, her faithful companion came trotting toward her from where she had left her. Systematically, the two teammates located and brought down another five men. Korra was beginning to get the distinct tingle of anxiety that came with too many easy victories in too short a time.

Naga's nose finally told them that the area had been secured and it was safe to proceed to the outpost. It lay about one hundred yards or so away from them, their position now north of the structure. Korra could see some sort of contraption, blanketed by a white tarp, standing about twenty feet away from the settlement. She smiled at her luck and made a dash for it. The voices only registered after she was halfway to the thing, leaving her no option but to get a quick burst of speed through a minor usage of firebending and slide under the giant tent.

Inside it was a small zeppelin, almost as small as a hot air balloon but not quite. It was not the same one that had taken Kaji and the others from the Sato Estate, but zeppelins were easily interchangeable and it was obvious that the particular one was chosen for its camouflage. The sheet that protected it from the harsh conditions of the outside was held down by pegs hammered into the hard compact ice. Thankfully, it provided for the perfect cover for the Avatar as she waited for the men patrolling the inner perimeter of the house to leave.

Quiet ensued shortly as the men rounded the eastern corner and disappeared from the detection of Korra's auditory organs. She turned to inspect the machine behind her. It could easily fit Kaji and herself, along with anyone else Korra was able to salvage from their iron prisons if all went well. Naga could also curl up on the deck as long as she kept herself small. Going toward the door she found, to her utmost delight, that the door was unlocked and well oiled. The hinges barely made a sound as she pulled them askew.

The inside was cold, indicating that the transport had not been used for a few days, but no longer than a week as the ice had not yet hardened within the various nooks and crannies. There were about five rooms with three bunks each for the crew. Three other rooms held one central bed in each; Korra curiously counted the captain and Aroostook wondering who the third could be for. Moving past them, she moved into the bridge room. The wheel was secured with a metal rod attached in such a way as to prevent any sort of maneuvering. The device was held together with a key hole in the middle; presumably the key would split the rod in two allowing it to be removed. Three-quarters of the room were glass, leaving a great periphery for any sort of obstacles that the airship might face. Korra liked that.

Moving back into the interior, she passed a heavy-looking steel door to her right. She tried to turn the knob with her hand to no avail. It was definitely locked, not giving as would something simply stuck. Korra huffed in frustration but left it alone. There would be no benefit to breaking it open and alerting every person in a ten-mile radius that she was there. The last section of the craft that she had not been to was a rusted gateway in the back. Predictably, it led into the engine room. Piles of coal lay next to the opened furnace. The thick gate that would close it had been left ajar and creaked ever so slightly as the hinges moved it back and forth despite there being no wind.

The coal and hearth were intriguing and fortunate for the young Avatar, but her eyes had fallen on something presumably much more valuable to her. In a corner, far from the reach of a wayward spark or flyaway ember, sat three boxes of minor explosives. Korra's smile was one that would set many a pyromaniac to shame. Grabbing two handfuls, she rushed out of the zeppelin. She made sure that every door was left open for convenience in the escape part of her grand plan. The grand plan that she was still making up as she went along.

Lying down against the cold earth, she pulled the tarp up ever so slightly to peer under the frayed edge. The coast seemed clear of any spectators. Still, the setup of the explosives was better done under the buffer of the material, keeping her away from prying eyes and keeping the gunpowder away from any moisture clinging to the air. Korra brought out a few of the small- _cherry bombs?-_ black balls she had placed in her pockets. Lighting about five of them, she scurried out from under the canvas and threw them as hard as she could into one of the second-story windows. The glass shattered under the combined velocity and hardness of the external shell of the bombs. Satisfactory loud crackles and pops sounded from inside before a greater explosion rocked the entire earth. The quake was large enough to even unbalance Korra standing where she was. Her eyes brightened as she realized that she had hit the armory. Shouts and frenzied voices sounded from every corner of the settlement as well as outside. Korra quickly combined her earthbending and her waterbending to dig a small burrow for herself. Her seismic sense felt the footsteps thundering above her and around her. She moved her hands in short thrusts and arcs as she dug her tunnel deeper into the stone surrounding her. The blackness was only slightly disconcerting, alleviated by the faint outlines of people still running over her. Turning her focus in front of herself, Korra moved toward the relative position of the basement in the house. She was somewhat worried about the lack of pulses, attributing it to the lack of direct contact between her and the walls of the building. What met her advances was something that complicated her plan a bit. The walls were made of a sort of material that did not yield whatsoever to her bending. Grunting in frustration, the Avatar gave the smooth wall a fierce punch enwrapped in flames. All it accomplished was jarring her knuckles and breaking the thin layer of skin over the bones.

Cursing Korra moved back toward the surface. Her patience expended, and the images of Kaji's limp form waiting for her in the claustrophobic holding under the floorboards of the concrete block spurred her to recklessly erupt from her cover in the midst of a group of men that had crowded around the front entrance. Their looks of bewilderment turned to ferocious scowls as their minds came to the conclusion that she was an enemy. Her fist connected with the first man before he could even move a finger. Korra's leg spun in an arch of fire before her first victim even fell in an unconscious heap on the ground. The back of her foot was caught in a block by a large muscular man with long braided hair and tanned skin. Korra did not let her momentum die down, instead retracing the path of her failed attack and sweeping a woman coming at her from behind. The body crashed to the floor, tripping another pursuer. A fifth man was actually able to grab her in a bear hug and lift her into the air. The burly man before her looked about ready to deliver a punch that would probably equal the impact of a small meteorite had it hit her. Instead, it went sailing over her and the man ensnaring her as his legs gave out. A scream came from him as he released Korra to roll over and clutch at his bleeding claves. The tendons had been severed cleanly by five ice daggers that lay embedded in the side of the building. Korra questioned it not, propelling herself back on her arms and then shooting both of her legs into the chest of the overextended dark man stumbling over her. He staggered back, but was able to keep his footing. A streak of pale blonde hair and white clothing flashed past Korra's crouched form. Before she could even blink, the man's thick neck burst into a fountain of red. His body dropped to the ground, lifeless, as his blood gushed out of the slit artery, pulsing onto the ground with each failing tremor in his heart.

"Are you alright?" a stranger's voice asked her. A familiar looking man held out his hand to her. She didn't trust him enough to take it, but nodded to him as a sign of thanks. "They're in the basement of the building. I stole the keys from a guard that was running to check on the explosion. I can guess that you were the cause of that?"

Korra glanced to both sides of her, knowing that more of the assassins and mercenaries would be coming and fast. She then turned to the man talking to her. His blue eyes shined in urgency, in his hand- free since she hadn't taken it- hung a ring of keys.

"Who are you?" Korra asked. More yelling reached them and she added, "Tell me as we're getting there."

She then grabbed the keys and sprinted into the open doorway. The small scrap of paper that held the schematics of the floors had been stored in her head- due to many hours of doing nothing on a rickety old sailing vessel. The stairway had been locked, but it was not a problem to undo.

"I am Karak," the strange man helping her was saying as they flew down the stones carved into steps. A waterbender snapped a water whip at them. Korra dodged to her left, her arm hitting the wall while Karak took to the right. Their adversary was felled by a block of stone catapulted into his chest and three sets of daggers pinning his uniform to the opposing wall. "I was sent to Republic City by my employer who had a hunch about the Water Tribe Chief's intentions in sending Aroostook as the new councilman."

They had reached the bottom. Three men and a woman were waiting for them; the guards that had come down as a precautionary force. Korra jumped and performed a spinning arc kick that hit between two of the waterbenders. Their 'octopus tentacles' blocked the brunt of the movement, but it still held enough concussive force to floor them. Karak quickly dispatched them with his own waterbending. He then sent the other two enemies flying with two well-placed punches to their solar plexuses.

"I was under cover as a conductor on the night of the attack," he finished over the groans of the people lying in various states of pain around them. Korra nodded as she remembered his outlandish hair color amongst the musicians on that long ago night.

"Enough of that though," Karak interjected. "Let's get these people out of here."

Kaji was miserable. No that wasn't the right word; she was fucking cold and hungry and catatonic and a multitude of other unpleasant things. She appreciated the efforts that Korra had gone through to save her; to come first before any of the metalbenders or the Fire Lord. She really had appreciated the sentiment. Still, having to sit for an entire three and a half weeks in a literal refrigerator did not make it easy for her to be grateful. The door to her personal frozen hell was opened with ease, indicating to her that Korra had managed to get the keys. Her mind was on virtual shutdown mode though, so all she could register were minute details. She saw blurry shapes, felt warmth wrap around her as well as indescribable pain in her chest. Whether it was from the chains biting into her open wounds or the reunion with her beloved, she could not tell. Her hands were freed then, dropping limply to her sides and leaving her to lean against the frigid bindings wrapped around her body. She didn't know that her vocal chords still worked until she was crying out in agony. Korra hastily propped Kaji back up against the wall while giving Karak the keys to unbind the rest of her. When the firebender was fully freed, Korra grabbed her thin, cadaverously cold frame and cradled Kaji against her warm chest. The Princess scooted herself deeper into the embrace, though it was all she had the energy to accomplish. It was enough for the moment.

Karak looked down at the two girls with curiosity. He had never really seen a relationship between two women before though he had heard tell of such things. Kaji's hostility made more sense in light of the information. Clearing his throat, he put on his best concerned voice and addressed the kneeling Avatar, "I do not mean to interrupt, but there are others we must save as well."

Korra hated that he was right. She hadn't thought about how she was going to drag four bodies out of the holding and into the airship. She almost face-palmed herself when she thought about the blasted thing. The remaining men could have taken it and Aroostook- if he was even still there- and left already.

"I need to catch Aroostook," Karak added as though he had read her mind. "I leave them to you until I find him. When I have him in irons I will come back for you."

Korra was about to glare at the man and tell him how stupid the idea of splitting up was, but he was already stooping to grab four shackles from the floor and racing up to the main floor. Rolling her eyes in frustration, Korra looked back down at the frail firebender in her arms. She had no idea how the girl had not procured frostbite with how scantly she was clothed. The thin blanket afforded to her was crumpled on the floor and about the same temperature as the room itself. The dress that was the only material covering Kaji was torn in multiple places and covered none of her extremities. Kaji clung to her with as much ferocity as her bony fingers were able to, making tears slip through Korra's clenched eyelids when she had to put her down in order to get to the other prisoners. The blanket did little to make up for the loss in warmth and the firebender instinctively curled into the fetal position to hold in as much as possible. Most was relinquished to the ravenous air around her anyway.

Korra sprinted to each of the boxes, unlocking the doors and speeding to the next. She didn't know if she had enough nerve to look within them quite yet. The bloodcurdling state in which she had found her lover was already breaking down the thin aegis of calm she had placed around herself in preparation for their reunion. Seeing three others in similar positions would do her no good.

Four frosty grey doors lay open, their contents still hidden behind the doors' reach from where Korra was standing. Kaji's prone form tucked itself in further, the last vestiges of Korra's body against hers slipping out of her; impossible to hold in as with sand or water. Korra took a series of short gulps of the cold air until her lungs hurt from the molecular ice particles hitting her bronchioles. She then moved to the first cell to her left. The man within was, if possible, even paler than Kaji had been. His clothes had once been green and yellow- signifying his Earth Kingdom origin- but were at that point nothing more than differing shades of beige because of the water washing away the dyes and the friction that came from that water freezing into the cloth. Black hair that had once been braided carefully and ornamented with finery hung around him in tangled waves, reaching past his scrawny face and bony shoulders. His lips were cracked, his face cut, and his bare chest had multiple scars on top of an area that was purely muscle with no skin whatsoever. There was no blood, only a dark splotch on the floor beneath his shackled feet that showed where the life-water had spilled out of him. The wounds had been frozen shut as the liquid cooled and clung to him. It was perhaps the only thing keeping him alive at the moment. Korra placed a hand on the pulse-point under his prominent chin. Yes, he lived yet. Afraid of what it would do to his open chest, Korra decided not to take him down just yet. She moved quickly to the cell opposite of his-the adjacent one having been Kaji's. The person within that one was probably the best looking of those so far. His white hair ringed a central bald spot that was a prominent gibbon moon. His eyes snapped open at her touch, gazing as though at her and through her at the same time.

"Thank the Spirits," he murmured, "they have come to end this agony."

The waterbender then lost consciousness, his limp body dragging down his chains until they snapped into a taut line. Korra unbound his feet then hands, making sure to catch him and lay him gently upon the ground. His shallow breathes were loud and ragged, but much stronger than the Earth Kingdom man and even Kaji.

The final door unveiled a short, stocky Fire Nation woman. Her greying hair hung against her sagging cheeks and throat. Her eyes were open, staring out into nothing as her lips moved with unspoken words. Whether they were prayers or the ravings of one gone insane with hypothermia and malnutrition, it was impossible to tell. Once freed, Korra returned to the last remaining captive still bound to his little ice box. She held no delusions that it would be easy to save the man. Even the most experienced healer would have difficulty closing up the wound and there would be extensive irreparable muscle damage. Still, Korra melted two chunks of ice by her feet and sheathed her hands in glowing ethereal liquid. The water slipped up and down the pinkish strands of tissue, bringing back a thin layer of dermis, then covering that with an even smaller layer of epidermal cells. The areas covered by the crisscrossed chains remained untouched as Korra did not wish to risk having the skin fuse with the metal. Another sweep thickened both layers of premature skin cells ever so slightly. Korra moved her fingers against the smooth new skin, testing its durability and flexibility. Her nails easily broke the membrane, much as friction could tear worn clothing. The layers hung in strands where she had perforated them. Korra huffed in frustration and increasing desperation. The man moaned and adjusted his hands in their cuffs. The raw skin broke in a few places but there was no blood in sight. That worried the Avatar; she knew that the lack of circulation and the weakening of the heart were to blame mostly; however there was also the fact that he had lost so much blood already.

Giving up on the hope that she could heal him whilst hanging, Korra unfastened his bindings slowly. She was careful to wrap her arms around his waist and shoulder, completely avoiding the chest area. Just as she was centering her balance to keep herself from falling and dropping her fragile burden, Karak returned. His face was flushed from exertion and his arms held a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise he seemed fit. He moved quickly down the stone steps to come and stand before her.

"The airship they had is ready for flight. I'll carry him and the rest up. You stay here and make sure no one else comes," Karak's tone was rushed and frantic. Korra was about to protest, noting that it was much more dangerous to have him go up undefended and at a disadvantage with a body slung over him, but the man simply shook his head and motioned in a way that conveyed 'I know what I am doing.' Korra shrugged and watched as he ascended out of her sight. Keeping alert, the chocolate-skinned girl moved to crouch in a defensive position that allowed her to nestle into the now unconscious Fire Nation Princess curled up on the icy floor.

Karak worked quickly, moving each person with a gentleness that never detracted from his speed. Once he had returned the third time, Korra simply took Kaji into her arms and followed him. His face darkened when her arms wrapped themselves around the bony back and weak knees, but he said nothing. Kaji herself had no complaints, nestling into the crook of Korra's neck and shoulder as though they were two pieces of the same puzzle finally coming to fit together once more.

The airship awaited their arrival outside. It was unfettered; the ropes that had held it secure to the icy tundra were stowed neatly to the side of the entranceway. Korra blew a shrill whistle, looking north to see her giant pet rushing to them. Karak nervously stepped back, out of the way of the massive animal. Naga sniffed at him and made a low growl before Korra hushed her and pointed toward the vehicle. Whining, the polar bear-dog obediently entered. The door leading into the ship was too small forcing the creature to curl up along the narrow corridor running between the wall and railing. Inside, Karak led Korra into one of the rooms- the barracks of three crew members that no doubt were sleeping in the snow at the moment. Two of the beds were filled with the older men. Karak placed the Fire Nation councilwoman in the remaining bunk. Korra had turned away after noticing the lack of room for her own rescue, instead opting to look for one of the solitary bedrooms she had seen before. The downy comforter felt heavenly on the fatigued icicle arms of the sleeping firebender. Even with the extra heat, Kaji still yearned for the feeling of Korra surrounding her in a protective coat.

"I'll be back to see you," Korra whispered into her ear, knowing that she was being heard if only subconsciously. "I promise."

Stepping out and softly closing the heavy metallic door, Korra moved toward the boiler room. Karak was coming up the opposite direction. He nodded at her indicated intentions of starting up the engine. He then continued into the control room, grabbing the steering wheel and preparing for their departure. The lock fell at his feet with a clang that resounded in the empty glass room. Korra piled the coal into the oven-like contraption then ignited it. The massive pipes cracked and groaned as the hot air rushed through them, melting off the vestiges of dormancy from the frozen bowels of the airship. The balloon filled quickly, rising much as the full moon on a cloudless night. The currents sweeping past the desolate land caught them and hurtled them into the unforgiving sky. Karak wrestled with the wheel, driving them against the current pushing north. He was able to relax only after the course had been set. His hands released their tension, lying as supports for the wheel under his fingers, keeping them true to the south. He looked around and behind him before slipping a miniscule piece of parchment out from the inside of his sleeve. It was still curled in the shape of the leg of the hawk that had delivered it to them the night previous. Rereading the contents he smirked and turned the wheel so as to adjust their trajectory to match perfectly with the proposed location written on the parchment.

Korra sat next to her firebender. She played with the damp locks that splayed against the pillows, fanning out in black waves of satin. Kaji's cheeks were slowly returning to their usual pale pink hue and her breathing was coming in the perfect rhythm of one who was at peace in their dreams. The older girl groaned and turned to bury her face into the contours of the younger, causing Korra to smile. Her hands moved from stroking the wild hair to grasping at the pale arms that had been flung over her lap. Her back was resting comfortably against the bed's headboard, a small pillow keeping Korra's back and the wood separated. Her dark eyelids dipped down before she fluttered them open again. She hadn't let the fatigue come over her until then. In truth she hadn't slept for more than twenty-four hours and the exhaustion was taking its toll. No matter how bravely she fought against it, sleep was becoming an increasingly overwhelming foe. Slumping down next to the girl clinging to her, Korra allowed herself to drift off to the thrum of the airship's fans.

What felt like only seconds later, Korra was being jostled awake by someone's large hands. Her eyes opened halfway, allowing the light to gradually pour into her retina and for her cones to overtake her rods. Blonde hair and navy eyes caught her attention. She had to think for a second before her new comrade registered in her memory. His shakes became more forceful until she had to push him off to keep her head from swimming.

"What?" Korra groaned. Her muscles felt leaden and sore. Her eyes moved longingly to the soft mattress and the person still sleeping contently in it. The room's only window cast large shadows past the window pane. It must have been nearing dusk by the position of the sun in the lower western hemisphere.

"I didn't want to risk going into the capital of the Northern Water Tribe so I started heading toward the Earth Kingdom," Karak began. His pause slightly annoyed Korra who did not want to expend any extra energy thinking.

"And," she prompted.

"There are Fire Nation ships coming toward us. It's a minor fleet but the ship at the forefront is definitely an imperial one. They aren't allowed to leave a certain perimeter around the island unless sanctioned by Republic City and the Fire Lord."

"Inzei?" Korra asked bewildered. His presence was not expected, especially that close. It must have meant that he had found out about the ploy to take the councilmen and Kaji.

"I signaled for permission to land but they won't give me the go-ahead without some show that I'm not a hostile. A show from the Avatar would be convincing enough I should think…"

"Say no more," Korra moved off of the bed and stretched her arms over her head. "I'll be right there."

Karak stepped aside to give the girl space as she made her way onto the railing outside of the ship. His eyes flickered to the dormant body of the Fire Nation Princess lying in the bed. His fingers twitched to form six shiruken-shaped daggers. How easy it would have been to lodge them into the supple flesh of the breast, moving up and down in perfect harmony. How his hands yearned to run along the sides of her neck and feel the heat pumping against him before he drew a line of red along the artery. The thoughts lasted for only a second before he turned away and moved toward the control room. It would not do to have the woman wake and find him staring at her. He had learned his lesson well the time before. When it came to Kaji, no matter what shape she happened to be in, he was no match.

The frigid air slipped over Korra's exposed skin and burrowed into her clothing but she paid it no attention. The ships below were massive, stretching for a mile. Well, that was a hyperbole, but not an extreme one. Korra flexed each of her hands and the digits before moving her arms into two arcs and sending plumes of red fire into the sky. Before the flames were able to diminish, she moved some water from the remaining clumps of snow and ice on the deck, forming silky waves by her sides. Shooting her arms out, the streams were compelled to twirl around the fading embers of the pyrotechnic display. As a final precaution, Korra moved the clouds, lazily flowing around them into two large spirals to either side of the aircraft with before clearing them away. A flare shot out from the front ship, popping in a patch of sky beyond them before disappearing in a thin line of smoke. The ship underneath Korra's feet lurched and took on a descending course. Naga yelped in surprise and dug her paws into the walkway to keep from sliding forward. The Avatar hurried to the engine room to control the outlet of steam as they neared the massive war machine.

The airship touched onto the polished deck of the imperial battleship with as much finesse as it could muster with the prevailing winds sweeping the evening ocean. Men scurried quickly to fasten the flying machine to the 'ground' before it was torn up in a surprise gale. Naga was the first out, bounding out in a large leap and landing gracefully by the front of the zeppelin. As the door opened, Korra could see a mass of soldiers crowding the plank in a tight half circle. They were all positioned defensively, not willing to take any chances despite her earlier demonstration. She was the first to go down, walking with her hands lifted in the air and her head held high. The men looked to each other before moving aside to let their leader make his way to her. The tall shadowy figure was instantly recognizable as the ruler of the Land of the Kindling Flame. Korra made a short bow, hastening the formalities so that the persons in need of medical attention were allowed to get it.

"Avatar Korra," Inzei beamed. "I did not expect to meet you here at the zenith of the world."

"Nor I you Fire Lord," Korra replied. "I located the prisoners and have them in my vessel along with a man who helped me rescue them. They are in need of medical attention as soon as possible-"

"Say no more," Inzei motioned to his guard. "Take the wounded to the infirmary and have them looked after."

"Yes My Lord," the men said in unison before getting to their appointed tasks.

"The perpetrator, Aroostook, has also been detained," Inzei's eyes went up to meet the unknown voice coming from above them. Remaining at the top of the vessel, Karak was leaning against one of the support beams that had been extended as the gangway had been lowered.

"This is the man who aided you?" Inzei inquired, his voice low enough so only Korra could hear it.

"That's him," Korra affirmed.

"Very well. Bring him down and we will put him in the brig until we have returned to Republic City," Inzei answered Karak's implied question.

Karak returned into the depths of the zeppelin to retrieve the fugitive representative. Inzei followed him with his eyes, unsure as to whether he could be trusted. His musing was cut short by a jovial cry coming from behind him. Korra and he both turned to see an excited Katara running out of the central tower. Her steps showed no sign of age and her crushing hug was not one of a fragile old woman. Korra had to pat the woman lovingly on the shoulder to motion that air was still necessary, even for an Avatar, before she was released.

"We were worried sick about you," Katara admonished. Her tone was anything but condemning however and the effect was lost. Inzei's eyebrows rose at the comment. He had not been aware that the Avatar had gone off without Tenzin's approval. In fact the airbender had made it sound like quite the opposite. In the end it really did not concern him though, so he returned his attention to the gurneys being brought into the airship and- more importantly- the state of their occupants as they were brought back. His chest deflated with relief as he saw Kaji being taken down. She looked horrible… but by far better than he had been expecting. He did not know when he had started to care about his 'niece' yet the tension he had felt when he had found out about her abduction was unmistakable. Looking upon the frail girl then, brought forth all of his fatherly instincts.

Korra could have cared less about Aroostook at the moment so she decided to accompany Katara to the infirmary. The wise waterbender was by far the best healer in the world. She had graciously accepted the duty of reviving the breathing corpses that were the councilmen of Republic City. In fact, Katara had established a microcosm despotism over the rest of the medical staff on the ship. She immediately took the Earth Kingdom citizen into intensive care and left strict instructions for the rest. Korra was allowed to do as she pleased as long as she kept out of the way of the flustered doctors and nurses running around to fetch supplies for the feisty Water Tribe woman. The Avatar had taken a chair by the bed where Kaji was lying. She hadn't awoken since that morning, not that Korra could blame her. Lacking in company, she contented herself with slipping her hand over Kaji's and watching the last rays of the sun vanish beneath the sea. If she unfocused her eyes enough, it looked almost like the sky and ocean knit together in a small burst of green and yellow before turning back into two separate entities.

The lanterns were turned on, illuminating the ships sailing ever north. Inzei was relieved that his primary objective had been met. Still, he wished to contact the Northern Water tribe Chief as soon as possible to straighten out the discrepancies of the entire drama. The man below, Aroostook, had confessed to nothing, but had also kept from denying anything. That left no progress and a disgruntled Fire Lord craving answers. He had sought out an audience with the 'under cover' man. The waterbender known as Karak had yet to appear, but Inzei had been informed that he had gone below deck to oversee the prisoner. It was not unexpected that it would take a bit longer to climb from the bottom floor to the top of the control tower.

The door leading into his study was opened by a butler. His servant bowed to the man who entered, then closed the door after entering as well. Karak bowed to the royal before him, grimacing at the gesture. He quickly pulled on a fake smile for the Fire Lord before taking the offered seat at the opposite end of the table currently inhabited by Inzei.

"You wished to speak to me Fire Lord Inzei," Karak stated.

"I did," Inzei confirmed.

Korra was dozing again when she felt Kaji shift beneath her sheets. The younger girl had been leaning her head against the soft fabric of the sheets adorning the white hospital bed so the movement was felt easily against her tired arms. Korra raised her head to rest her chin against her forearms, expecting to see her lover still in fitful slumber. She immediately shot up when she saw that Kaji was, in fact, awake and had pushed herself up to rest her back against the iron backboard of the rickety furniture.

"You're awake!" Korra exclaimed. Kaji, surprised to hear Korra's voice so close to her, turned to look down at the dark girl.

"It appears that I am," she yawned into her hand before settling her lips into a smile. Korra had come to sit beside Kaji- who had scooted over to provide some more space. Throwing caution and shyness to the wind, Korra tugged her lover into a tight hug. The suppressed tears she had held in for so long poured out uninhibited. Kaji gazed in wonderment at the sobbing figure of the most powerful individual in the immediate solar system. The fact that anyone was crying over her was a new notion for the young firebender and she found that the same warm liquid was beginning to fill the back of her eyelids as well. She held the salty water at bay by leaning into Korra's shaking shoulder, taking in the fragrance she had not smelled in an eternity. Korra's sobs eventually subsided leaving them comfortably holding onto one another in silence.

The moment was broken by Kaji. She couldn't help but feel guilty about making Korra worry so much over her, especially since she had been the mastermind behind the entire masquerade. That and it was about time to finish the first stage of her plans. Trying to find a good conversation starter, she settled with "So tell me how my dashing knight in silver armor came to save me. Hypothermia makes the details somewhat blurry."

Her attempts were greatly rewarded with Korra's soft laughter. Their eyes met before Korra went to lean against Kaji's collarbone. The Fire Princess was aching greatly but she was not about to let Korra know it. It would be too much for her if she lost the comforting contact now.

"It wasn't easy. I started going up toward the Northern Water Tribe the same night as when they took you. The Earth Kingdom is so big! It took forever to get to the ports. Then I caught a boat-"

Korra continued describing her traversing of the choppy seas on the small fisherman's boat while Kaji listened to the sound of her voice. At times the words didn't even make sense to her, but she ignored that, focusing in on the way Korra enunciated every syllable and put emphasis on the parts she was especially excited about. Korra, on her part, skipped over her experiences in the Spirit World. She was leaving it for a later time, she reasoned. It was simply not something she wished to discuss when she was in such high spirits after having her lover back. Kaji's eyebrows drew together at Korra's mention of Karak's aide in the rescue.

"Who came to help you?" she interrupted Korra's vivid detailing of the fight against the plethora of men by the front entrance to the compound.

"Karak," Korra replied hesitantly. Kaji's tone didn't sound happy about her luck in finding a comrade. "He has white-ish blonde hair and blue eyes. He said he was sent to investigate Aroostook by a member of Chief Satren's council."

Korra felt a weight sink into the pit of her stomach at the look of pure horror spreading over Kaji's face. Her hands tightened their grip around Kaji's forearms, which were in turn wrapped around her torso. The golden eyes flickered around them as though expecting a hidden assassin to jump out of nowhere and attack them.

"Where is he now Korra?" Kaji asked. Her voice was flat, something even more frightening than if it had been panicky.

"I-I don't know. The last I heard, he was interrogating Aroostook with the other firebenders."

Before Korra even had a chance to move, Kaji was up and running out of the medical ward. The firebender was silently thankful for the change of clothes into a plain white tunic with matching pants that reached to her knees. Her feet and arms were bare but the heat of the ship kept her warm enough. She peeked behind her to see Korra following on her heels. She sped up just a little to ensure that the Avatar kept close without overtaking her.

Korra marveled at how someone who had been bedridden not even twelve hours ago could suddenly dash away at the speed of a deer- antelope. Kaji wove in and around the corners of the Fire Nation naval ship as though she had been born on it. The stairs were taken three or four at a time with no concern over broken ankles or sprained legs. As they reached the lower levels, the heat began to drop off as well. The girls' breath could be seen in plumes of mist as they sprinted forward along the grey and red corridors.

Kaji finally rounded a corridor and stopped dead in her tracks. Korra nearly collided with her due to the abruptness of the conclusion of her movements.

"Wha-" Korra was about to inquire when her eyes fell upon the scene before them. The brig was a thin corridor with about ten holding cells. Every door was closed except for one that lay swinging in and out with the sway of the vessel against the waves outside. The dank floor was covered in a mixture of salt water and a darker liquid. The ruddy reddish brown splotches were interrupted only by the bodies that were their source. At least five Fire Nation soldiers lay in differing positions of death. Some were propped against the wall, their head bashed into the steel behind them. Others had deep puncture marks in their necks, faces, chests, and other portions of their major body cavities. Within the cell that had been thrown open, there lay a very familiar coat of fur.

"What happened?" Korra moved to wrap her hand around one of the bars of a prison to steady herself.

"We have to get to Inzei," Kaji stated. The panic was clearly evident that time. "Now."

The two girls raced back the way they had come. Kaji took the main stairwell, wrapping itself around the center of the ship into the control tower and bridge that lay above. The trip still took a good fifteen minutes despite their best efforts. Kaji shot through the final doors barring them from the top story of the seafaring mode of transportation. Her breathes came in short pants, her lungs burning from the oxygen that came and went too quickly to be completely harnessed. Korra came to stand beside her.

The hallway was empty except for two rooms: the bridge and Inzei's personal dining room and makeshift study. Kaji burst through the room on her left, coming to realize that she had been mistaken in her guess. The captain and a few sailors looked to her as though her hair was on fire.

"Come with me," she ordered. "The Fire Lord may be in need of assistance."

Kaji did not wait for them to do as she commanded. Her hand grabbed for the handle of the opposing room, jiggling it to find that it was locked. Growling in fury she swept her leg in a fiery arch and collided the heel with the center of the metallic rectangle. The hinges tore loose from their holdings and the entryway was cleared. Kaji burst in, followed by Korra and a scattering of the crew members. Within, Inzei had been pinned against the wall by his robes with a sharp icicle dagger pressed against his throat by a broad-shouldered man with pepper colored hair. Beside him, leaning casually against a chair, stood a fair-haired youth picking his teeth with a smaller version of the daggers embedded into the walls and held in the other man's hand. Kaji had overestimated her own stamina; her legs twisted in on themselves under the weight they could no longer support. This left her leaning against one of the walls to her right, allowing Korra to come to stand in the middle of the doorway. Aroostook turned first and was greeted with a flash of orange fire. He recoiled screaming as the flames licked at his face. The noise seemingly awakened Karak. He slid underneath the next wave of flame being shot at him. The room was small and held a disadvantage for the sweeping movement necessary for firebending, giving him an edge. His slide ended with a roll and a kick toward the girl standing at the doorway. Korra sidestepped easily and grabbed his leg in a lock. He twisted out by slamming a wall of water into her via his other leg. Landing in a push-up, Karak shot himself over the table to land on his legs. He turned and assessed the situation. Kaji was picking herself up from where she had fallen against the room's border. She wouldn't harm him extensively until the job was done but there was no guarantee that the other would offer him the same courtesy. Korra was recovering quickly from his attack giving him even less time to think. Aroostook- their original murderer- was a worthless heap of burned flesh and pained moaning. The Fire Lord was beginning to pick himself off of the daggers pinning him down. Karak's arms drew upon the water from a small skin he had slung over his hip. The stream converted into a whip and struck out toward the Avatar reaching for Kaji. The hardened tip hit against the girl's cheek, cutting into the flesh and causing her to recoil away from his mistress. The whip was quickly vaporized by a flicker of flame from said person before she hurtled herself toward him. He saw that he had been cornered. Kaji's eyes said it all. It was either he completed the mission or he died in the prolonged agony of those charred by the blue flame. He had no intention of letting the latter occur.

Korra's eyes widened as the world stopped turning. Every detail of their surroundings became as clear as those seen through a microscopic lens. Kaji's body burst over the table with her fire propelling her under her feet. She was frozen mid leap, stretching her clawed hands toward the waterbending man. His hands had pulled back into his hip, bringing his water whip with them. The tiniest hint of ice was beginning to appear on the very tip of the segmented liquid. In the corner, Aroostook was clutching at the bloody hole by his face where his ear had been melted into the side of his head. The blood had been instantly cauterized so his hands were as clean as before it had happened. His screams echoed in prolonged moans. Inzei had gotten his hand free from one of the daggers but his elbow was still immovable at the moment. His head was turned in concentration toward the next restraint, almost willing it to release him.

Time renewed its course in such a manner as to appear to have fast-forwarded instead of becoming normal. It was as though Korra had only blinked and the entire fate of the earth had been upturned. More screams joined in with Aroostook's. Kaji had reached Karak and his body had gone rigid before convulsing in a series of flailing movements. During her acrobatic jump over the dining table, Kaji had summoned up her lightening and, as her pointer and middle fingers made contact with Karak's body, the torrent of electricity had jettisoned itself into his body. The agony lasted for barely a second before he collapsed lifelessly to the ground. The surprise and betrayal in his eyes was evident only to one and she was anything but remorseful. Kaji's triumphant smirk soon dropped into a look of disbelief as she turned to look at the form of the Fire Lord. Inzei's bronze eyes that had held the internal warmth of his fire were dull and cold. His head hung down, droplets of blood coming from his mouth in a waterfall of red. Korra turned to see the last heave of the man's breast before he ceased moving, the ice shards sticking out of the mass of red at the front of his tunic were nearly invisible in the darkening fabric. The shrieks had died down into an ethereal silence. No one dare to move, to think, to breathe. If they had, then it would have been real. The moment would have happened and the Fire Lord would be dead.

"For the Water Tribe!" the moment was shattered by Aroostook's proclamation before he ran at Kaji with a steel dagger. The firebender didn't seem to see him, her eyes not leaving the lifeless body of her ruler. The blade flashed dangerously before it descended upon her stricken form. Kaji acted on pure instinct when she moved to the side of the strike and brought the arm holding the weapon in a sweeping movement until it buried itself deeply into Aroostook's stomach. His eyes dilated then constricted with the unexpected turn of events. The men watching the proceedings were brought out of their stupor with his gurgling chokes as he tried to dispel the liquid rushing into his lungs.

"Restrain him!" someone called. Ten hands took a hold of the man and dragged him away from their new Fire Lord. With Aroostook gone, Kaji had lost her support and fell on her knees in the pile of blood and bile that had fallen to the carpeted floor. Her entire body was numb; an effect of using lightening so soon as an attack but it served her purpose to play it off as emotional damage. Korra came to kneel beside her and took her into her arms. Kaji gripped at her sleeve, rocking into her soft body. The small trickling guilt of making Korra frightened on behalf of her was more difficult to quell than she thought it would be.

"Oh my Spirits," a voice came from the doorway. Both girls looked up to see Master Katara standing in the hallway looking in.

"Inzei's dead," Korra was able to croak out while Kaji just hid her face in her shoulder.

**P.S: Apparently my little indicators of time gaps do not show up on my mobile and I haven't checked whether they do on the regular sight so I apologize if they get to be confusing. Any errors are a product of my insomnia. Writing this made me realize that I cannot live anywhere outside of SoCal because any temperature below 70 F is too cold for me. Karak reminds me of Zevran. The sneaky bastard just betrayed me so I sorta took my anger out on my OC. It's like I killed him twice (in the game and the story). I still like him though and it makes me sad deep deep down. Enough rambling. Review por favor!**


	18. White Funeral

**A/N: I am on VACATION! Finally. I cannot even express how much homework I had last week, which is really why I was not able to update until now. But the chaoter is long so hopefully that makes up for it. I don't feel the love! No reviews! Why?! Was it something I said? *Tears* On a happier note, this story is now over 100,000 words- by far by longest- and has more than 3,000 views- second most out of my stories and definitely the most if I consider time-wise. So thank you all who have been reading but please review. It sustains me when sugar and chocolate just don't cut it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except Kaji and the other OC's. They are MINE, Mwahahahaha. Ha, umm, moving on.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"We have to get to Inzei," Kaji stated. The panic was clearly evident that time. "Now."

Kaji's body burst over the table with her fire propelling her under her feet. She was frozen mid leap, stretching her clawed hands toward the waterbending man. His hands had pulled back into his hip, bringing his water whip with them. The tiniest hint of ice was beginning to appear on the very tip of the segmented liquid. In the corner, Aroostook was clutching at the bloody hole by his face where his ear had been melted into the side of his head.

Kaji had reached Karak and his body had gone rigid before convulsing in a series of flailing movements. During her acrobatic jump over the dining table, Kaji had summoned up her lightning and, as her pointer and middle fingers made contact with Karak's body, the torrent of electricity had jettisoned itself into his body. Kaji's triumphant smirk soon dropped into a look of disbelief as she turned to look at the form of the Fire Lord. Inzei's bronze eyes that had held the internal warmth of his fire were dull and cold. His head hung down, droplets of blood coming from his mouth in a waterfall of red. Korra turned to see the last heave of the man's breast before he ceased moving, the ice shards sticking out of the mass of red at the front of his tunic were nearly invisible in the darkening fabric.

"Inzei's dead," Korra was able to croak out while Kaji just hid her face in her shoulder.

The city in the center of the volcanic mountain was quiet. It was not the quiet that could be found on a warm summer afternoon or a particularly chilly winter day that only occasionally swept through the southernmost continent above the South Pole. The streets had been cleared of all residents. Children that had once run along the cobblestone roads were shadows of memory, echoes of a brighter time. The venders that had held claim to the main streets leading from the outer ring of the Capital into the wealthier inner ring had closed their small shops. The metal blinds had been drawn over the colorful wares; then they too had been covered by long flowing curtains. The flags draped from their metallic holsters were no longer the extravagant and outstanding vermilions and sun-yellows that normally graced the city of Agni. In their place hung flowing white fabric inlaid with no adornment other than a fine pearly rim. The winds that somehow slipped through the protective dome of rock that jutted to encircle the silent city had also disappeared, afraid to disturb the fine dust of yesterday and the day before. The dust that lay there, the memories that should have stayed instead of passing into mourning; all stood still. The white laces that clothed the buildings and flagpoles made the entire atmosphere resemble a ghostly mirage of a dead metropolis, slowly vanishing in its own shock and grief.

The people missing from the deserted homes and businesses were not, however, restless spirits in search of their salvation. Rather, they had all been gathered before the large building, jutting out of the Eastern Wing of the palace. The fore of the courtyard had been reserved for the nobility and the wealthy merchants who had earned their places through monetary title. The back was taken up by the rest of the population. Before, in the time of the sprawling Fire Nation Empire, the death of a Fire Lord was attended bearing the finest crimson robes a man could buy. Large banisters of red satin would be held in the hands of those who were worthy enough whilst others held smaller flags of a matching coloration. The purity of white had been reserved for the members of the Royal Family alone, distinguishing their blood ties with the deceased and Agni from whom they came. After the war's end, Fire Lord Zuko had established a differing tradition. His motivation had been to bring the ruling monarchs closer to their subjects by allowing any who wished to wear the royal garments of mourning to do so. His attempts had somewhat backfired on him in the end, however. To the people of the Fire Nation, young and old, rich and poor, sharp and dull; the Fire Lord was not, and had never been, an ordinary person. The line of their rulers was one that was traced to divinity. Agni's children through a direct link. The first to be molded and taught the art of fire wielding by the dragons of ancient times. As such, the white worn by every member present in the large clearing before the palace was not something done to express power near the line of Agni, but to show reverence to the fallen demigod, no god, that lay in the gilded golden coffin atop the pyre.

Inzei had not been of the direct lineage, however he had been seen fit to rule for as long as he had. This, for all who stood beneath him in the social pyramid, was as good an omen as any of divine acceptance and ascendance. Thus the citizens wept for him as they would for any other Fire Lord. They wept tears that had been shed for Zuko, Azulon, Sozin, and all before, with not a hint of apathy.

The wailing and moaning of the spectators stilled as a tall figure approached the pinnacle of the towering stairway leading to the outcropping structure standing above the still body of the Inzei. The Prince looked only for a moment, at the face of his father, before turning away to stop the tears threatening to spill. The wrinkles that had adorned the aging man's face were now smooth. His eyes had been shut with a small spattering of wax, covered by an artist's fine brush to conceal the small ridges. If anything, Inzei looked more at peace than he had in a while. His robes were of the softest silk, pearl and gold with a small Fire Nation insignia embroidered on the breast. His hands were folded neatly over his heart, holding a replica of the crown he had worn for so many years. The bed he was lying in was also cushioned with silk and the finest of cottons. There were no flowers; it was not with tradition to adorn the inside of the coffin. The golden box had been elevated on a pile of wood, meticulously placed to uphold not only the carrier of the body, but also the four long poles holding the top of the grave. Twin dragons curled their tails outward into twin circles on the corners, their heads meeting in a flurry of sparks. The rest resembled a normal Fire Nation roof in style, but held the added flourish of the gold it had been molded out of. It was indeed an architectural masterpiece, and it was almost as much a shame to turn it into ashes as it was the man held inside.

Iroh II slowly got to his knee. His hands struck the floor in twin fists as he grit his teeth against the opening and closing of his throat. His robes folded out over his arched back, falling onto the ground by his skyward heel. If there had ever been a time when he wished that his hair had been longer, it was then. If he could only had the privacy to weep for his lost father, for his final parent on the Earth that had been taken. Duty and the honor of his father compelled him to shut his eyelids against the stinging droplets of water amassing out of his tear ducts. Movement beside him had his attention turn slightly from the aching in his heart and the burning in his lungs. Beside him knelt the other Royal Family member. The only one left besides him. Her dress was akin to his. The long robes reached to the floor, the ripples in the front obscured by her raised knee tucked against her chest. The yellow sash tied around her waist brought out the fabric above and beneath it ever so slightly. It accentuated the thin frame hidden under the bulk of the garment. Two folds of fabric stretched down from her shoulder to meet in points at her center line. His own folds were crushed beneath his hunched body, pressed tightly around him in an embrace lacking in any comfort. Her head was bowed, as his was, in deference to the passing of the great lord to their left, but her eyes continually scanned the area around them. Iroh did not know whether it was paranoia from Aroostook's attempt on her life, or something else, hidden from his knowledge. Either way, he couldn't help the rising wrath within him at the slight show of disrespect. It was not the time to be thinking of anything but the pain that came with the death of a loved one. He inwardly growled, thinking that Kaji shouldn't even have been there. She had not known Inzei, she had not been his child, and yet she was allowed to kneel beside him. It was only after quelling his rampant rage that Iroh conceded that Kaji was as much a child of Agni as he was, even if she had not been Inzei's child.

The Fire Sages had finally appeared from the shadows cast by the glistening tomb. Their large pointy hats and flowing clothing were the only splattering of color amidst the sea of pallid ghosts. The red, so close to the blood that had left the corpse's body in the final beats of the heart, was more of a stain upon a shining sheet of purity than a respectful representation of Agni's beckoning arms. Iroh hated the uncaring looks on their faces. The three came to stand in a triangle facing outwards, their voices ringing out across the silent observers and piercing into the clammy body of the prince.

"Inzei, Fire Lord to our nation for twenty brief, peaceful years. You were our fearless leader in the wake of political struggles with the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, proud savior of the councilmen of Republic City in their hour of need, and benevolent ruler of the citizens of the Fire Nation. You were father of Iroh the second. Husband of former Fire Lord Arina, now passed. Uncle of Kaji. We lay you to rest."

The two adjoining priests shot a flurry of flames into the piles of wood and fine silks. The casket immediately ignited, leaving nothing to be seen of the inside but shadows of the ever blackening body and its surroundings. The gold melted under the intense heat of the fire and, as the wooden beams splintered, the top of the coffin was slammed shut and fused together under the pressure and energy of the blazing inferno. Iroh could not watch any further as the wall of fire engulfed the remainder of his family, the last of his bloodline, excluding his estranged cousin of sorts who had stood up and was now standing before the head Fire Sage. The man bowed his head, indicating that Kaji was to kneel once more. Her eyes moved her body in a small half-circle, until she was facing the hundreds of faces looking upon her in awe. The flames behind her back gave off warmth that cut through the chill of the event and cast shadows upon her high cheek bones. Her bangs had been pulled into a bun, but the remaining luscious expanse of straight ebony locks was allowed to hang free against her shoulders and back. Each strand was meticulously brushed and tucked so as to leave not a single hair out of place. She had to be flawless, the epitome of the god she represented, the patron of the Land of Kindling Flame.

The sage's voice resumed its bolstering crescendo as he lifted the gleaming five-pronged crown above Kaji's bowed head. "As was your wish, you are now succeeded by Azula's progeny. Hail Fire Lord Kaji!"

The crown pierced her neat bun, striking her scalp so that a thin line of blood dripped down her neck from a scratch where the gold had contacted her skin. The bead was lost in the thick carpet of black hair and Kaji's eyes held no indication of the small prickling discomfort caused by it. This was her time now. As the entire city bowed down to her, she fought to keep the smile from adorning her ruby lips. Kaji straightened to her full height. Her golden gaze swept over the prostrated bodies before her, lined by two rows of fire lit candles. The smoke from the funeral pyre that was turning the last of Zuko's influence into ashes wafted lazily into the sky where, far above in the stratosphere, it was finally caught by the wind and carried to rest in the sea. Below, Kaji relished in the feeling of her victory. She had succeeded, fulfilled the wishes of her grandmother and reclaimed the honor lost in Azula's fall from grace. The crown was hers, the Fire Nation was hers, and soon, soon the world would be as well.

Two Weeks Earlier

The sea was calm, something completely unexpected for the turbulent winter months around the North. The Fire Nation Vessels had been compelled to continue toward the heart of the Northern Water Tribe in a burning fit of vengeance against the atrocity committed upon the lead ship. The captains and men were all shouting for the blood of their perceived enemies in atonement for each stain on the carpet of the former Fire Lord's carpet. The body of Karak had been inspected for any trace of who he had been. His clothing, skin, even entrails had been examined to discern his origin. Nothing of compelling evidence had been retrieved and all they had was his obvious involvement in the Fire Lord's death and his affiliation with Aroostook. The councilman had, unfortunately, not been alive for much longer than an hour after he had made the attempt on Kaji's life and she had reversed the dagger to plunge into him. That left speculation and nothing more. The three other members of the International Council of Republic City were also not in any state for coherent speech. The Earth Kingdom man's condition was not improving in the least and it took all of Katara's skill to keep him breathing. The Southern Water Tribe man had been lost in his own mind since he had awoken aboard the vessel, talking to entities that were not there and pleading the names of all the spirits he knew. His search for salvation had not been answered as he had yet to come out of his shell. The Fire Nation woman had lost six of her toes and one finger to the gangrene that had taken her. Water had been dripping into her cell because of unconscious waves of heat coming from her body to attempt to regain homeostasis within her core. Unfortunately, it had only served the purpose of corroding her skin and freezing over the flow of blood that had come from the remaining nubs. Apart from that, she slept away the sickness and fatigue coursing through her old body. Katara held the ferocity of a mother dragon in her protectiveness over her patients. The crew members had fearfully and affectionately dubbed her the 'Water Serpent' due to her biting refusals to their attempts at interviewing anyone. The only one left then, was the young heir to the throne. Kaji had been the one to actually demand the ships direct their course southward. Amid protestations the girl had platonically stated that the Fire Lord deserved a proper Fire Nation burial and that she would not be responsible for holding the body in its sealed room while it festered. The crew had silently bowed their heads in shame and abided by her wishes.

To preserve the tissue as long as possible, Kaji had requested that Korra freeze the room. The salt water was brought forth in buckets so that the round window in the emptied barrack would not have had to be welded open. The only thing in the desolate grey room had been the bed of steel that held Inzei aloft from the ground. Korra moved her arms in rigid arcs, sending the water around the entire room in a whirlpool-like fashion before bringing down the temperature and freezing the liquid to the walls. Her breath came out in misty gasps even though her body was not tired; her mind had been put under enough duress to leave her winded. A light pressure on her shoulder pulled her out of the room and the portal leading into it was closed, locking the precious treasure away from the eyes of those who were looking. The room would have to be refrozen every few days, then in increasingly shorter intervals as they neared the equator and beyond. Having secured the body as well as they could have, the men returned to their tasks. The neutral laws of buoyancy and physics did not give reprieve to those who held the leaden feeling of sorrow in their hearts. The coal still had to be shoveled into the burners and the fires kept alight so the massive floating beasts of metal kept moving in their steady paths across the wide sea. The formation had to be kept, the triangle maintained in its spearhead shape so that it may strike through the waves with the most efficiency and grace.

Kaji stood staring at the door after all had left. She did not know why, but a strange feeling had crept into her being when her vision of the dead man had been blotted out by the solidity of unbending purified iron. It was not burdensome like that of the soldiers who had pledged their allegiance and their lives to the man behind the wall. No, it was different. She did not want to call it light, because she could sense the relative heftiness of it, but it was neither the shine of victory nor the dark abyss of guilt. There was something mystifying in the afterimage of the rigor mortem overtaking the arms and legs, locking them into position better than any mortal chains. She did not know how to explain it other than the relative pity that came with the demise of a good man who happened to be an unfortunate piece placed in an unfortunate position by some higher hand. Despite herself, Kaji had grown to like the previous Fire Lord. He had not been naïve or stupid in politics as Aroostook had been; at the same time, he had also not been ruthless and conniving in his affluence. Such men were always a breed in danger of extinction and it was almost a shame that Kaji had been forced to take his life. It was akin to the murder of a divine animal simply because she had been the hunter and it had jumped in front of a bullet aimed for something else.

Her thoughts were broken by two arms snaking around her waist and pulling her into a warm embrace. She hadn't even noticed that Korra had slipped her shoulder out of her grasp and moved behind her. The mask of stone slipped from her face to shatter at her feet as she turned to lean into the crook of Korra's neck. The slight sheen of sweat that clung to the tanned skin of her lover made her eyes sparkle with barely concealed lust. Kaji knew that it was not prudent to let her acting slip for a moment's pleasure, but still; the taste of Korra's flesh, so ingrained in Kaji's memory, was enough to make her knees weaken and her spine tremble. Korra's arms tightened, the girl taking Kaji's shivers as a sign of grief rather than arousal. Korra pressed her cheek into Kaji's forehead, relishing in the returned heat beneath the firebender's flesh. The unnatural coolness that had pervaded her lover was now a distant nightmare in a string of nightmares and, for the moment, it was enough to let the happiness of holding Kaji in her arms overcome the depression of the other events.

"Kaji-" Korra bit her lips. She didn't know what to say, but she also didn't want to prolong the silence. Her princess was ailing, shocked and broken despite her best efforts to appear otherwise, and Korra wanted nothing more than to bring her back from the precipice.

"Hmm?" Kaji's breath against Korra's exposed skin drew a tingling between Korra's legs which she immediately reprimanded herself about. Korra could not afford to let her rampaging hormones cloud her mind with such desires when her love was in pain. Not now, not in this moment of tension.

"I- I just-" Korra stopped. Kaji's lips had come to press gently against her collarbone. Her intake of air was sucked in through clenched teeth. Kaji's tongue gently ran along a small trail of perspiration until she reached the junction between the Avatar's neck and jawbone. Korra stifled the moans clawing their way out of her exposed trachea. The vibrations were enough to give her away to the firebender who was holding her against the cold wall of the ship's corridor. Korra hadn't even felt them step back until her back hit the metal.

"W-wait. We shouldn't be-" Korra's protests were lost when her sapphire eyes met Kaji's dark gold ones. The wetness along the Fire Princess's lower eyelids broke through Korra's resolve so quickly that the girl had to wonder why she even attempted to say 'no.' So much had happened, so much that had kept them apart for what seemed like eons. To feel Kaji against her, with no separations, was something Korra had been craving for some time.

"Please," Kaji's veiled whisper was all it took to liquefy Korra's waning defenses. The overwhelming need exemplified by the slight crack in Kaji's voice held such fragility, as though baring her soul in that one word. 'Please.' Korra could not think of refusing her. Not now; not when they were finally together; not when the entire world had just about collapsed over their heads; not when Kaji was this close and there were no guarantees of the future.

"I-" Korra began before Kaji crashed their lips together. Korra's exasperation at not being able to finish any of her sentences was lost below the fire coursing within her. Her muscles bunched together, propelling her arms up so that her hands could cup around Kaji's cheeks and then into her hair. Their tongues did not battle for dominance, rather moving in sync along every crevice of the other's mouth and lips in order to re-familiarize with each other. Kaji ran her hands over the hard muscles of Korra's back, sheathed in the rough wool of her coat and all the layers underneath.

The moment they broke away from oxygen-deprivation was the moment that Kaji took Korra's hand into hers and started running down the hall. They climbed the stairs in a haste expressed only by those with uncontrollable desperation. Korra held no inkling as to where they were or where they were going, so she contented herself in allowing Kaji to lead her as she had every time before. This time, however, it was hopefully toward a happier happening. Their journey ended as they swerved into a vacant room and Kaji slammed the door shut before bolting it. Her chest moved frantically as her lungs filled with air and dispelled it; her hair hung down over her face, hiding her eyes but not her open mouth; her hand slid from where it was holding the locking mechanism of the door to grip her waist. Korra licked her lips, tasting the wetness still clinging to the soft skin.

**Beyond this point there is smut. If you do not wish to read, scroll down to the other writing in bold that signals the end of the lemon. You have been warned.**

Kaji practically tackled Korra to one of the lower cots of the room. The room had been a reserve barrack, uninhabited for that particular voyage, as distinguished by the lack of sheets, pillows or other furnishings indicative of life. However, it had a mattress and that was all that was necessary. Kaji held no complaints as Korra flipped them over so that she was sitting atop Kaji's flexed stomach. Korra pulled at Kaji's top, the traditional shirt held by buttons that moved from the center at the neckline to just in front of her left hip. The infernal straps were set in their claim of the small copper pieces holding the fabric together. Korra growled in frustration at the utter stupidity of the design. Kaji's smile was reward enough to calm the overeager Avatar. The older girl helped slip each small engraved circle under the fabric and loose it from its holding. After the third one, Korra was beginning to get impatient again. Her hands unfolded the top piece of the shirt and slipped underneath to cup Kaji's breasts. The nipples hardened immediately under her touch and Kaji arched up letting out a groan. Korra closed her eyes in revelry at the sensation of holding her beloved in her hands and eliciting such sounds from her. Her left hand continued in its rubbing and worshipping of Kaji's right breast while she took the left one in her mouth. The taste of saltiness at the pinnacle of the hard nub sent Korra reeling. Her teeth bit down sending a wave of electricity through Kaji. Her hands gripped at the mattress beneath her in an attempt to hold onto her sanity. Korra's mouth was so hot against her, leaving a steamy wetness with each flick of her tongue. When she drew back, Kaji whined with the sensation of cool air hitting the area. Korra's eyes darkened to indigo as Kaji ground her hips into the Avatar. They were both panting by that point.

Kaji suddenly took hold of Korra's arms and dragged her forward so that they locked into a passionate make-out session. Korra felt her jacket and shirt being lifted from her head, breaking the two girls apart for only a second as it was removed. Then she was back to biting Kaji's lower lip and pushing against her bare chest. The friction caused by skin rubbing against skin sent shockwaves down their bodies, amassing in the pools of wetness between their thighs. Korra felt the need intensify until she was grinding haplessly against Kaji's body, groaning like some kind of beast and not caring one bit. It had been too long and she felt like she would die if the energy within her was not released. Kaji's hands moved to Korra's pant-line, slipping her thumbs below the hem and pulling down. The feeling of Kaji's sharp nails tracing down her hips then thighs sent Korra to Cloud Nine. Kaji lifted her leg to catch the piece of clothing and bring it the rest of the way down to Korra's ankles. The slight elevation of her hipbone hit Korra's center in such a manner as to bring a scream from Korra's flushed lips. Kaji's lips stopped it halfway, muffling the other girl by taking in the ecstasy and dispelling it throughout her own body.

Korra was now completely naked, writhing under the fiery touches of the girl underneath her. Kaji took Korra's breasts into her mouth and hand while slipping the free one down the rub against Korra's clit. The fluids spilling out of her coated Kaji's fingers in the Avatar's slick euphoria, lubricating her entrance in anticipation. Kaji felt Korra tightening; she would not last that long. Wanting to fulfill her lover's needs, Kaji slipped two fingers into Korra's folds. Korra rocked into her hand, pushing Kaji even deeper into her. Her walls tightened with the impending orgasm until Kaji curled her digits into the spongy muscle and released the spring holding Korra's body taut.

"Ah, Kaji!" Korra yelled into the firebender's neck before biting into it as the orgasm rocked through her. The intense pleasure begotten from Kaji's presence within her was so raw that it threatened to consume Korra into oblivion. There was nothing like it, nothing she had ever experienced that felt that good.

Korra's body went limp in the final throws of her release. Her hands trailed Kaji's sides from the underside of her breasts to the annoying cloth keeping Kaji hidden from her. The firebender arched into her, begging for the same release that she had provided for Korra. The Avatar was happy to oblige her. She lifted herself up so that she could swiftly remove the rest of Kaji's shirt and then her pants. Lowering her head, Korra took Kaji into her lips. Her tongue swirled over the princess's entrance before moving up and sucking on her sensitive clit. Kaji sunk her feet into the bed so that she could push herself deeper into the younger girl's lips. The clenching of her muscles only helped to bring her closer to coming. Korra's tongue darted into her nether lips, lapping up all of the wetness that she had caused. Her face relaxed into a smile as she felt Kaji's release unleash around her. Her lover's screams were glorious, beautiful, musical, and it was her name that was coming forth in a mantra. It was Korra who made Kaji feel this way, no one else, and Korra felt an extreme sense of satisfaction at knowing that Kaji was hers. However, once was simply not enough. Kaji brought Korra up to her again, kissing her so that she could taste a mixture of herself and her lover in one. Korra moved to wrap herself around the firebender, pushing for more.

**Okay, for all you innocents. It is over. You may commence in reading. :) For everyone else, hope you enjoyed.**

Lying in each other's arms, completely spent from their prolonged lovemaking, Korra and Kaji gazed at each other. Korra had pushed herself up so that, even though Kaji was the taller of the two, Korra was looking down at her precious one. Their foreheads were connected, almost as though they were sharing their thoughts through pure diffusion.

"It's going to be okay," Korra whispered, hoping to sound convincing for the both of them.

Kaji inwardly cringed at Korra's misplaced concern for her. The young Avatar would have enough to deal with in the coming months without having to worry about Kaji's 'broken heart' over Inzei. She pulled a small, genuine smile over her lips and replied softly, "I know. I have you."

They were a week away from Republic City. The Earth Kingdom man was showing signs of progress, though not much, but it was enough to lift the moods of Katara and the entire medical staff. The Fire Nation woman was expected to awaken at any moment, as discerned by Katara's extensive knowledge of the body's condition through her healing. The Southern Water Tribe member was still, somewhat aloof, but his mental state was nevertheless better. No one was yet permitted into the ward without specific instruction from the Southern Water Tribeswoman but Katara was slowly beginning to thaw her frosty barricade. The captains and soon-to-be Fire Lord Kaji were anxiously awaiting the full recovery of all. Or at least, that was what everyone who saw the young monarch would have believed.

In truth, Kaji was upset that the conditions of the holding cells had not killed the Earth Kingdom citizen and Fire National. The Southern Water Tribe councilman was always meant to survive to make her own rescue seem less suspicious. Unfortunately, the constitution of the others was proving to be a hindrance to her plans. It was not particularly the people themselves that were a threat. Moreover it was that Kaji had been planning the death of the Earth Kingdom man as incentive to pull the Earth Kingdom to arms and, as for the woman, Kaji was in need of allies as her representatives in the Council, not a neutral party.

"It is such a relief that all of the captives are coming around, no?" a smooth voice came from behind her as she sat at her desk in the quarters given to her. Kaji had been offered the Fire Lord's suite, but had refused in a show of deference and remorse.

"Quite. We must be thankful for the foolishness of Aroostook's prison guards and assassins," Kaji replied evenly, turning to face Izuru Kain. She had grown accustomed to the silent entrance of the Dai Li agent and had even begun to notice the slight warnings of her presence.

"Mm," the tall, pale earthbender nodded her agreement. "Perhaps we should not get too excited though. As things stand now, anything could happen."

The implied question brought a smirk to Kaji's face. Her dark lips curled back to reveal gleaming white teeth. If Izuru had been anyone else, she may have cringed away, but she knew that Kaji needed her. Then again, she had needed Karak as well and that had not ended quite so well for the waterbender. Izuru made a note to keep her guard up.

"Yes, I suppose it could," Kaji replied nonchalantly, checking her pristine nails. They were growing back well from the abuse they had gone through over the past few weeks. "Well, there is no use in speaking of such things. Fate will decide them." The unspoken consent was picked up by Izuru, who nodded again lightly.

"Yes. What, then, shall we talk about?" the leader of the Dai Li moved to sit on the bed tucked away to the right wall of the room. It had been fastened between the floor and side so as to not move with the constant sway of the sea. The soft sheets were meticulously folded with a military efficiency. It made the spy smile. Small details of her mistress's habits were the only indications of Kaji's personality and lifestyle and Izuru held much enjoyment in assessing them.

"I am interested in the investment I made a few years ago with your underground. Now that I am to be Fire Lord, I wish to make it more… mainstream."

"The product has been taken well. The king in Ba Sing Se is still somewhat weary, but his courtiers will soon bring him around. They want nothing more than a return to the weak line of ascendancy that characterized Kuei's rule seven decades ago."

"Very well. I expect to form close ties over trade with Ba Sing Se. It will be beneficial to both our nations I believe," Kaji lowered her voice before adding. "How do you think the tragic passing of the Earth Kingdom's representative would affect good King Daoguang?"

"They were close as boys. I do believe our great King would be very displeased by the Northern Water Tribe's atrocities were he to pass," Izuru patted an Earth Kingdom lullaby into the cotton bedspread with her fingers. Kaji watched her scrupulously.

"I do believe we have run out of topics," Izuru mused. "I will be returning to Ba Sing Se as soon as we land at Republic City. I am sure I will hear from you soon, Fire Lord Kaji."

"As soon as the crown is mine," Kaji affirmed. Izuru stood and glided away, her steps muffled by the carpet lain over the hard ground.

A winded errand boy burst into the bridge room at the top of the tower, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. His eyes flickered over the bewildered faces of his higher officers and the Fire Princess and Avatar themselves. He bowed down to them, falling to the floor in the presence of his new ruler.

"Speak," Kaji gave him permission. Korra was flustered by the show of fealty, but held her tongue. Kaji was to be Fire Lord soon, considered a god in human flesh, and was naturally to be shown respect. Still, it did bother her how Kaji did not even blush at the boy's fervor. Had it been her, and it had been many, many times, she would feel awkward.

"My L-Princess," the boy stuttered over whether he should refer to the Fire Princess as Lord yet, or wait for her to be crowned. Kaji's eyebrow raised but she said nothing to chastise him so he continued, "the representative of the Earth Kingdom was found dead this morning and the Fire Nation councilwoman has been diagnosed as comatose with very small hope of recovery. Master Katara has no explanation-"

He was cut off by Kaji shoving past him and making her way down the stairs. Her red kimono swirled behind her, bouncing each time she stepped down. Korra quickly followed, sparing the poor flustered boy an apologetic glance before disappearing.

The hospital wing was bustling with commotion. The staff was running around like headless chickens, or more so than they had before. Katara was in the process of practically drowning the cadaver of the Earth Kingdom councilman in glowing water. Her hands shook with the effort of expending that much energy at one time. Korra ran forward to catch the elderly waterbender as her legs gave out and she fell back. Kaji would have been content to let the water witch fall, but alas her Korra held familial loyalty to the Master. Instead, she sufficed herself by yelling in a disbelieving voice, "How did you allow this to happen?"

Korra and Katara both looked at the fuming firebender. The rest of the doctors and nurses were frozen in place by the resounding yell from their monarch. It was rather comical, how they were frozen in mid-step or mid-grab of something. Their copper and brown eyes were all fixed upon the girl in the bright crimson robes staring daggers at the waterbender propped up in the Avatar's arms.

"How did YOU let this HAPPEN?" Kaji repeated herself. Her face was set in a frown but she enjoyed every delicious moment of turmoil her outburst caused.

"Me?" Katara growled, "I was helping them. I had them on the road to recovery. I was curing them. The question is what did YOU do? You vile snake; killing Inzei and then these people. What is your game?"

Kaji's inner smile faltered. She was unsure as to whether Katara was simply yelling out convictions or whether she actually suspected. It was probably a little bit of both. Not allowing her façade of fury to break, Kaji put on her best incredulous voice and shouted back, "Don't you DARE imply that I was involved in this. Inzei was my Fire Lord, the representative of Agni! I would rather be skinned alive than go against my ruler! And what perverse logic would lead you to believe that I could harm a member of my nation? In case your addled senile brain failed to comprehend this, the Fire Nation councilwoman is in a COMA!"

"Silence yourself, impudent child!" Katara's voice rang out causing everyone but Kaji to flinch. Korra tightened her hold on Katara's shoulders to keep her from pouncing on Kaji. The tiny, empty hospital bed separating them was not nearly enough of a bulwark for the poor firebender if she let Katara go.

"I will not. Tell me what happened! You removed all of the medical staff in stubbornness to prove that you could still use your healing water as you did in your youth. Now my representative is in a vegetative state and the Earth Kingdom man is dead! Do you know how badly that reflects on the Fire Nation? That he died on MY ship, in MY care!" Kaji growled and expelled a small stream of fire from her mouth. The blue fire licked at the air around her before flickering out as she calmed down.

"Oh yes, because reputation is what is important. Do you hear yourself? Just like that vile monster of a grandmother you had! Never caring about anything but the objective," Katara jeered. Korra watched as Kaji's eyebrows raised and then sharply dipped down into a snarl of pure hatred.

Kaji felt her blood boil. What had begun as a play of emotions had quickly escalated to a miniature volcanic eruption in her head. _The peasant bitch had not just insulted her grandmother. Azula was worth a hundred of her, a thousand! She was not getting away unscathed with that comment._

With a guttural roar that sounded Draconic at the very least, Kaji sprang forward, clearing the bed with little effort, to stand inches before the Tribeswoman and Avatar. Katara twisted her arms out of Korra's grasp and converted the water from a bedside bowl into a shield just as Kaji's fist connected. The blue fire broke the ice shield into a thousand small particles. Kaji's other hand came with unnatural speed created by the burst of blue fire coming from her wrist. Katara pushed Korra out of the way before ducking herself. The fist sailed past them and collided with another bed, thankfully empty, and broke it into smithereens and flying splinters. Kaji turned and was about to unleash a chain of kicks and roundhouses had her body not become frozen in place. Her eyes frantically moved from side to side, trying to understand why her limbs suddenly felt as though they were not hers. Her fire extinguished itself and her arms went to wrap around her throat. Her legs gave out and she toppled to the ground. The palms dug into her trachea, closing off her windpipe until she was gasping for air. Stars blurred her vision and the only thought she could formulate was one that consisted of panic and one word: _bloodbender._

The pressure suddenly released and her arms became her own. Kaji's throat was sore and stung as though slashed with a hundred sharp needles. Her lungs convulsed and she found herself wracked with coughs as she tried to get some air. She was able to get onto her arms and knees, but was too weak to go further. Her eyes went up to where Katara was being held up by Korra. The old woman's hands hung limply to her sides, but her eyes made it clear that it had not been her intention to stop. Beside both Korra and Katara stood Izuru Kain. Her mouth was pressed in a thin line and she was looking at the waterbender with disdain. In her hands she held four small needles, akin to those used in acupuncture. The rest, now that Kaji was able to control her eyes and take a closer look, were imbedded in Katara's shoulders and, one only, in her neck.

"Now, I don't want to be in the middle of a war," Izuru would have chuckled at the irony had she not been in public, "because you two happened to have a misunderstanding. Master Katara, I am going to take out the pins. However, you have to promise me that you won't attack Kaji. Kaji, same goes for you once you've recovered."

Kaji grunted, unable to form any words due to her throat. Her hands rubbed at the new bruises that were forming where her fingers had been closing around her throat. Her own hands, betraying her for the whim of that filthy water peasant scum. It made her want to be sick. Katara's own growl was no more civilized and that, that she had control over her tongue. She did not know what it was about the girl kneeling between the two empty white beds that made her so angry. Well, perhaps she did know. The similarities between Kaji and… her were astounding and it brought back memories that Katara did not want to relive. Still, she had to keep her head. There would be no good to come of assaulting Kaji because she happened to unlock a corner of Katara's mind that she had kept hidden for so long. The Dai Li woman was right; war was too high a price to pay for anything.

"Great," Izuru smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. "I'm happy we can get along cordially."

"Master Katara!" a new voice burst in to their circle. Katara's eyes moved, but she still held no control over her body neck down, keeping her from turning her head. "It's the Fire Nation councilwoman… she… she isn't breathing!"

"Get me over there," Katara ordered Korra, who was still petrified over Katara's usage of her bloodbending. The Avatar snapped out of her stupor, carrying her teacher to the bed where the Fire National's body was convulsing in a seizure-like motion. In the back of her head, Korra would make sure to reprimand both of the feisty women she loved over hurting each other, but now was not the time.

"Kain!" Katara called. "Get me my limbs back, she needs a healer."

"I'm afraid I do not know how to reverse the effects-" Izuru began but was cut off by Katara's frustrated growl.

"Korra, you are the only waterbender here other than me. You're going to have to do it," Katara motioned for the young girl to leave her at the chair sitting next to the patient's bed.

"Me, but I haven't; I mean I never learned to do that; I can't," the protests came forth from Korra's mouth in a stream, words stumbling over each other in their attempt to get out. Korra's cerulean eyes widened in fear. She could not be held responsible for someone's life, especially for the life of such an important personage. Katara had indeed taught her the healing arts, but anything above a broken bone or two was way beyond her at that point. To attempt to cure the mind, the entire body, it was unthinkable.

"Do it!" Katara ordered. Korra immediately sheathed her hands in the fluorescent waters and placed them, first over the woman's chest to slow her frantic heart and relax the rupturing walls. Next she traveled, closing her eyes to concentrate further, up to the center of the wrinkled forehead. The brows relaxed with the entry of the water into the nostrils and ears. Korra's hands sensed the clumps of tangled chi and blood flowing irregularly through the old woman's brain. The capillaries had burst, filling the cavity with blood. The brain was losing blood quickly, with each throb of the heart. Korra's eyes watered as she realized that the damage had been done; the increased heartbeat and pressure had ruptured too much. Even if she closed off the ends of the blood vessels, the tissue would never recover.

Her eyes opened and the tears came down. She had never actually felt someone's life slipping through her fingers before. The feeling of actually sensing the spirit lift away as the body ceased to function could not have been explained or compared to anything. It was… it was death, but Korra felt it as though it were her own.

"Korra," Katara's voice reached her. "Korra, it wasn't your fault."

Korra whipped her head to face her Waterbending Master. How could she say that? Had she known? But then, why? Why had she made her enter into the dying firebender's head? Why had she been forced to experience that empty vacuum as the essence of the person left?

Kaji watched as Korra's eyes hollowed. At first, a sense of panic gripped her; unsure as to what had occurred to have taken the light from her love's eyes. Then she heard it. The last breath being exhaled. What startled her was that Korra had undoubtedly seen death before. Kaji had seen the corpses of a few of the 'assassins' lying in the red snow. This was somehow different than that though. Tears streaked down Korra's cheeks, pale and lacking in any blush. Kaji was frightened, unsure as to what had happened to the Avatar. She longed to grab Korra and hide her in her arms, to not let anyone lay a finger on her. The pain of looking at Korra's hurt expression as she looked at the old crone and to not have the ability to do anything about it was almost too much.

"Korra, I am sorry," Katara began. "I didn't know until it was too late."

Kaji's anger broiled again. Her fingers itched to shoot a bolt of lightning through the tribeswoman for hurting her Korra. Said person stood up from where she had been bending over the cold corpse. At first, no one, not even Korra herself, knew what she was going to do. Then she ran. Korra didn't even know where she was going, nor did she care. Someone was following her but she didn't want to turn and look. They could all just go to hell. Her breathes were coming out in hyperventilating gasps when she reached the top of the ship. Her eyes fell over the railing and she felt the contents of her stomach rise up in an unstoppable wave. Her feet barely carried her fast enough before she emptied out her gastro vascular system overboard. The bile stung and her eyes continued to drip tears even when the sadness had transformed to a dull throb of apathy. Once she had choked up everything she had, Korra moved to sit with her back to the eternal ocean surrounding them. She couldn't care less about the scenery, so she closed her eyes.

They opened into a threatening glare when she felt something brush against her. Her head turned in the opposite direction of the person sitting beside her. She knew it was Kaji; the jasmine and cinnamon scent wafting with the sea breeze was unmistakable by that point. Still, she was in no mood to be around anyone.

"Hey," Kaji whispered. Korra was surprised at the uncertainty in her voice. Kaji was usually so sure of herself. To hear her stutter in discomfort was… unforeseen. "We don't have to talk… but I wanted to apologize."

Korra moved her head to look confused at the bowed head of the firebender. Kaji's face was hidden behind a curtain of silky hair that cascaded over her shoulders and arms, which were resting against her knees. One of her legs stretched out so that it was flat against the deck of the ship. Her foot moved from the left to the right and then back while she fought to fine the right words. Korra beat her to it, "For what?"

"For losing my temper; for not stopping Katara when she was pressuring you to heal my citizen; for not understanding any of your mystical waterbender powers so that I can find out what went wrong," Kaji bit her lip. She had never really felt such a compulsion to protect someone like she did now. Even with Azula it was always out of respect and… love, but a different form of love. With Korra, it was something completely revolutionary.

Korra's giggle brought her head around so that she could see her lover. A small part of Kaji was worried that the girl next to her had snapped under all the duress. Korra continued to chuckle at the stupefied look on Kaji's face. Finally she was able to mumble, "Mystical waterbending powers."

Kaji let out a sigh of relief before nudging Korra with her shoulder. "Stop laughing at me. I am very lacking in experience when it comes to waterbending techniques. It's not my fault I never found them to be useful."

Together they sat, under the noon sun beating down on the metal deck. It did not warm it; it was too cold where they were for that even though they were pretty far from the poles by then. Still, it seemed much warmer since they were together.

Republic City's harbor stretched before them. Korra hated to see it. She rephrased that; she hated that she would have to disembark and leave Kaji on board. That and the disapproving scowl she knew Tenzin would give her and it was a recipe for a not-very-happy Korra.

The statue of Avatar Aang greeted them with his youthful face. His grey eyes seemed to follow the entourage of ships as it returned to the metropolis. The people came to greet them with palpable excitement, just as they had the first time. The mood was soon dampened, however, as the Avatar and Master Waterbender descended the gangplank. Their solemn faces, and then the following ensemble of men carrying a gurney with a white sheet covering the body on it, foretold of events that would certainly bring about mourning throughout the world.

Tenzin was the first to come for them. Following him was Lin. She had been called back from her search of the Earth Kingdom when Inzei had started for the Northern Water Tribe. She had made it back in time for the news that Korra had been found and was on board Inzei's ship. They had heard, from Katara's letters, of Inzei's death, but not the death of the others.

"Korra, thank the spirits," Tenzin sighed before embracing the Avatar. Korra was pleasantly surprised that he hadn't gotten to the chastisement immediately. "You are safe."

"Yeah Tenzin," Korra replied. She stepped aside so that Katara could greet her son. Lin gave her a concerned look, but Korra only had eyes for her firebender. Kaji had disembarked with them to petition to give her nation's councilwoman a Fire Nation burial. Lin watched as Korra's eyes never left Kaji as she talked with the tall airbender. A soft look passed over the stern metalbender's features. They had seemed very close when she had first met Inzei's heir.

"Thank you for your understanding," Kaji bowed her head to Tenzin before turning. She wanted to wish Korra goodbye with a kiss; she wished that she would not have to say goodbye at all. The world had other plans for them and so, all she could do was stretch out her hand and give Korra a cold handshake.

Korra felt something slip from Kaji's long sleeve into her own hand. It was scratchy, like and envelope that had been folded to become small enough to put in her hand. She looked up at Kaji, confused. The Princess just smiled and turned to go back onto the head metal ship. She would soon be returning to the Fire Nation to receive her birthright. Still, it was hard to not look back at those brilliant, loving blue eyes that she knew were watching her as she moved away. The ships bellowed steam as would a volcano bellow ash as they turned and moved away from the largest continent on Earth.

Left behind, Korra unfurled the small slip of paper from her death grip on it. It was indeed an envelope. Checking that everyone was too busy with the latest news and mortuaries, she opened the small wax seal. It was heavy, as if something other than paper was in it. Paper, was the first thing to slip out into her palm. It was a simple note, small and concise, reading:

_I may not be well informed about Water Tribe tradition, but this is for you as a token of my feelings._

_ K._

Korra slipped the note back into the folds of the white parchment container. Her hand dug into the little pouch until it touched something cold. It was smooth, but not a rock. It had ridges that felt like metal, but the majority of the surface was something familiar. Korra gripped the small medallion and lifted it out to where she could scrutinize it with her eyes. It was a small circle, similar to the ornament adorning Katara's necklace. The one given to girls as a gift of engagement, a token of the other person's heart. This one, instead of being light blue and emblazoned with the crest of the Water Tribes, was a dark torrent of blue mixed with white to match Kaji's flames and had the Fire Nation crest entwined on the surface in silver. Another piece of paper was stuck to the back groove of the metal. On it read:

_I expect mine soon._

Korra smiled at the sentiment and hugged the jewel to her chest. Perhaps the future held something benevolent for her after all. One could hope.

**P.S. review PLEASE! I shall send virtual chocolates! I shall send virtual unicorns! I shall send virtual whatever it takes to get some feedback. This took me all day! That is how much I love you guys. :)**


	19. Of the Earth

**A/N: I am updating! Yes. Unfortunately, I will not have access to my computer until next Tuesday evening so don't expect anything before then. So sorry but blame my divorced parents and the fact that I do not own a laptop. Anyway, this chapter has left Korra/Kaji for more background, but I tried to make it entertaining so please read. There is a character from chapter... I want to say 4, see if you remember him. Anyway, enjoy and please review. The previous chapter reviews make me want to sing 'You've Got the Love' by Florence and the Machine from my rooftop. I won't do it because of safety reasons, but I can dream.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! So please don't sue, I just got some money for Christmas and I would like to keep it.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"I am interested in the investment I made a few years ago with your underground. Now that I am to be Fire Lord, I wish to make it more… mainstream."

"The product has been taken well. The king in Ba Sing Se is still somewhat weary, but his courtiers will soon bring him around. They want nothing more than a return to the weak line of ascendancy that characterized Kuei's rule seven decades ago."

"Very well. I expect to form close ties over trade with Ba Sing Se. It will be beneficial to both our nations I believe," Kaji lowered her voice before adding. "How do you think the tragic passing of the Earth Kingdom's representative would affect good King Daoguang?"

"They were close as boys. I do believe our great King would be very displeased by the Northern Water Tribe's atrocities were he to pass," Izuru patted an Earth Kingdom lullaby into the cotton bedspread with her fingers. Kaji watched her scrupulously.

"I do believe we have run out of topics," Izuru mused. "I will be returning to Ba Sing Se as soon as we land at Republic City. I am sure I will hear from you soon, Fire Lord Kaji."

Izuru Kain had reached the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se within a fraction of the time that it would have taken most. Fortunately, government agents were allowed access to the revolutionary new railroad system that had been making its debut within the past five years. The tracks had been laid out over thousands of acres of ground because of their ever increasing number of metalbenders. Now, all major metropolises and trade ports were connected by the skeletal spines of steel dotting the earth like the exposed wounds of some great forgotten beast. In a global perspective, the speed of the new trains was second only to those in the Fire Nation. Ba Sing Se was still sore about the fact that the Fire Nationals had stolen the blueprints for their inner city transportation system and perfected a massive, metallic beast they lovingly referred to as the first freight train. Still, when it came to efficiency, the Earth Kingdom's method was far superior to that of the southerners. And it was such because of one very simple reason: where the Fire Nation had to spend money and spare workers on the coal fields around the world for fuel, the larger continent had to only implement one resource, and one very abundant and cheap at that. They would only have to use their earthbenders. The men worked tirelessly, or so said the advertisements compelling wealthy patrons aboard, in two shifts, rowing the earth and turning the wheels of the contraption to move it along. For those inexperienced in metalbending, an entrepreneur had installed a thick band of earth in between steel bands of the wheels. It truly was a marvel to behold. There had been certain complications with the rate of pay, leading to a few riots and even less peaceable strikes, but the Dai Li had quickly quelled the indignation and restored order. Their actions were for themselves to know and outsiders to not question.

Izuru was shaken from her brief recall of the past by a rather harsh jolt that shook the frame of the car she was in. The posh seats and intricately carved table shuddered against their restraints, the small glass of clear liquid on the counter nearly tipping in the process, before everything stilled once more. The exhaled relief of the workers was far less raucous than the excretion of steam from the Fire Nation train. A genuine smile graced the cold woman's lips and, had anyone seen it, she would have blatantly denied it. But it was there, in all of her nationalistic pride.

She made her way to the palace quickly, using the smaller trains leading into the inner ring of the great walled city. Around her, passengers disembarked making their way to whatever mundane existence awaited them. Izuru never had been good at hiding her contempt for the peasants- or as they had started calling themselves, the proletariat. They were lesser beings than those above them, and yet they still insisted on challenging the word of the King and his council as though they were equal. The Dai Li agent thought back to what had led her to accept the deal she had made with a certain firebender, promising her of a secure state without permission of such nonsense.

_The nobleman's daughter had been the youngest child of three. Her hair was a sleek black, just like her father, but her eyes shown with the emerald light of her mother. The baby fat around her small cheeks and body had not yet fully receded even though she was nearing ten. Her brother had just returned from the front of a civil dispute between two territories to the west. His chiseled face was the epitome of the aristocratic soldier who saw only the battles of convenience; enough to give him his badge of honor and keep any real danger in the hands of the expendables below his rank. Of course, Ferran Kain had not known of such a thing; his humble air and benevolent spirit had been shown in his refusal of a lavish officer's tent for the squalor of the foot soldiers' quarters. That, however, was in the past and he was much too enraptured by his youngest sister- who seemed an entirely new child from the one he had left- to pay much attention to his father's proud interrogation. The middle sister, a fine young lady of fourteen, was sitting beside her mother. The two were perfect mirror images of each other; their eyes depicting green fields, their lips the lightest pink with a new gloss they had received, and their hair made up in long and lustrous curls of light brown. Saya Kain had been determined to fulfill her role as the elegant bachelorette of the house, to be married into royalty or another wealthy family since her brother and other sister were so obviously inept at that sort of thing. Her brother smiled at her antics, good-naturedly wishing his younger sibling would stop her pursuit of adulthood and enjoy her waning years of childhood. _

_The Kain family made most of their money, and had made it for decades, through good investments in stock and a handle on the blooming steel industry. The Fire Nation had uncovered a more effective method of steel production where a large furnace would superheat the tainted iron until all impurities were burned away, and then the searing white liquid would be poured into molds to become what it was destined to be. Most of the factories still remained in the Land of Kindling Flames, but they were lacking in the iron resource to supply the hungry maw of the cauldron. There, Tiĕn Kain had procured his fortune._

_That particular night was to be a quiet one for the family. The social season had died down the previous week with the final ball. It was relaxing, nice even, to be able to sit in their extravagant lounge, full with tables, chairs, bookshelves towering to brush against the fine white plaster ceiling, and a large fireplace to keep them in a comfortable blanket of warmth. The family had just settled there after a boisterous dinner where Izuru had been chastised for earthbending her sister's chair out from under her to please her brother. Even though the girls were trying their utmost to display their aversion to each other, the evening was too benign to be convincing. There they were, all of them arranged in an array of laughing, squealing children running about their parents who could not keep the smiles from gracing their faces. That was the last time Izuru had laughed with true mirth, and that was the night that it had all turned to ash._

_Later on she would come to find out that it had been a dissatisfied employee of a mine owned by her father who had burst into their house. His family had died from a disease that had been sweeping the area and had not had enough money to purchase the aid of a doctor. His family had died in his arms, driving him to insanity's awaiting grasp. Travelling the wild and treacherous terrain as though it were a stroll in one of the picturesque parks within the capital, he had made his way to Ba Sing Se where he had been told, lived the man who controlled the miners and their wages. It had been a false allegation as it turned out, for Tiĕn had not been aware that his advocates had been increasingly lowering the salaries of their workers in order to pocket the capital made. The naïve entrepreneur had chalked it up to an especially productive year. He had, as had his murderer, been killed by ignorance and cruel fate._

Izuru shut her eyes against the images of earth and blood sailing around her. Everything seemed so much bigger and scarier then. Her brother's skull had caved in, impacted with a stone nearly twice as big as his fist when the enraged miner had demolished the doors in an exothermic push of energy. Her father had tried to protect them, but he was no bender. His body was slammed into a wall with a cage of stone. Her mother and sister screamed and tried to fight the man, blind with grief and anger. They had fallen, paper dolls in the path of a komodo-rhino. Young Izuru's eyes went wide when she saw her father's body crack and break under the pressure of the rock pressing in on him until his eyes bugged out and his head went slack. She was the only one left, standing behind the table where she had just been demonstrating her miniscule bending skills by making two marionettes dance with each other. Her eyes, so pure green, were wide in fear and the inevitability of what would happen when the man turned from the corpse of her father and saw her. The jolting of the city train underneath Izuru's back had faded to the background of the memories.

_The large, heaving back of the dirty beast that stood with his face turned away from the youngest child of the Kain family was hunched over the hidden remains of her father. It shook violently and, at first, Izuru had no idea what to make of it. She knew that she should run, but if she so much as moved he would hear her and pounce. But what he was doing at that moment, it was somehow more frightening than his destructive outbreak seconds before. Izuru's tiny brain was finally able to compute the tremors running through the large spine and muscled arms of the demonic thing that had torn her happiness from her. The man was crying. His sobs became a pained howl by that point; horrible and wretched in their lamentation._

_It was not until after they had quieted that his feet started to shuffle back from the wall and his final victim. The blurry brown eyes, bloodshot and only half alive, turned to focus on the still atmosphere. The table had been cracked in two by one of the doors and a chunk of wall. The bookcases had fallen, dragging each other down like legs of a giant tripping over each other. The chairs still stood, somewhat in the same positions as they had been, perhaps pushed to the side by fleeing bodies or an impact of smaller debris. And there, beside one of the smaller seats, cushioned with a pillow embroidered with lilies, was a small girl. His eyes grew wider, taking in the watery depths full of fear. Fear of him. He looked around him again. The bodies of two women, no, a woman and another girl and the other one, the boy no older than his eldest had been. The mahogany irises were drawn back to the crystalline emerald ones. His knees shook and buckled under him. His ears did not even hear the trampling of feet outside the corridor, nor could he feel the multitude of hands that gripped at him and restrained him. All he could see were those eyes. The child's world falling apart because of him. But he could not regret. Even then he saw his own family, lying cold in his arms. His body was carried out and locked into one of the police vehicles. As for the child; the Kain family had many friends, one of whom was a widow in her mid-forties and was willing to take in the unfortunate creature. Under her tutelage, Izuru had learned earthbending and metalbending. She had been sent to college and had quickly procured herself a job in government. No one could have known the hatred she harbored inside, the waves of red passion that called for revenge upon the lower class. _

Izuru's frown turned into a smirk. Had the idiot thought that he was doing her a favor, not killing her as she stood there helpless? He would regret it, from whatever pit under the spirit world he now resided in. The train stopped and she disembarked. Before her was the palace. Two long structures protruded out of the main building, flanking the three arch doors in the center. The buildings had all been kept from their antiquity, their russet walls of brick and rock stood magnificently, reaching like mountains to the heavens. Green emblems and sigils of the finest jade were ringed in gold along the sides and the front of the behemoth building. On top, just barely visible to one who was standing before the protective walls, was the golden castle itself. The sloping roofs were glistening royally in the noon light. The sun may have allegedly favored the children of the Fire Nation, but his grace was not in short supply here. The buildings were hidden from view by the cool corridors of the inner bulwark, the final defense.

Once on the other side, and quite a few stairways up, Izuru could finally see the towering columns of white stone holding up the massive four-story structure. The two sweeping corridors that rimmed the entrance encircled the palace much as the arms of the wall had done. Their opulence was breathtaking, making Izuru slow her step ever so slightly so she could take in a bit more before merging into the depths within.

It had been there, in the shade of the corridors and spires reaching far beyond what any mortal hands should have been able to build, that she had first met the newly crowned Fire Lord. Izuru was early; the king was holding court in which he would sit upon his throne and dictate his wishes for the improvement of his country. Instead of moving directly to her office, the woman turned to her left and began to stroll aimlessly down a corridor. She had not done such a thing since she had come to be in the Dai Li.

_Izuru had been under the tutelage of a few of the Earth King's advisors ever since her graduation from one of the most illustrious institutions within Ba Sing Se's walls. As such, she had requested a room in the inner circle. Being a noble, she had not thought it to be a problem. What had been surprising had been the unanimous decision amongst her teachers to allow her room and board within the very palace itself. Izuru had been dumbfounded, though her dull eyes- never having regained their childish glow ever since the' incident'- showed no sign of it. Her heart beat quickened as her eyes swept over the cool marble and jade passageways. They stretched into oblivion, infinite and incomprehensible._

_The weeks passed and she had discovered, or at least she liked to think she had, most of the secret corridors and hidden rooms of the vast expanse of marble and stone that comprised the royal palace. Izuru's eyes were shining with her recent promotion to head the newly restored Dai Li section of the Earth King's intelligence force. It had been her idea, so she felt that the position was well earned through her hard work and perseverance. Still, it was worth a silent tap on the back. Her self-congratulation was cut short by an unexpected sight. There was a girl standing in between two columns, seemingly soaking up the pale sunlight that was streaming through a rather thick cloudbank that hung over the expansive skyline. Her clothes were strange, a mixture of reds and rustic oranges; unlike most of the green and earthly browns that were seen amongst the populace of the Earth Kingdom. Her hair was black, nothing interesting about that shade, though it was held in a loose ponytail and was much longer than any noble's daughter would have allowed it to be. Izuru fingered her own hair, reaching just enough to cup her jaw line in the front and somewhat shorter in the back. What had struck her at first, despite the other inclinations of abnormality, was that the girl's face was not one Izuru recognized. To someone else, it would have not seemed that strange to meet a complete stranger in the populous capital, however Izuru had made it her primary objective to familiarize herself with all the visages of those permitted in the palace. This one was new._

_"Are you lost?" her voice was crude, biting almost. The girl turned to look at her. She was young, probably four years Izuru's minor. Her body was starting to show the signs of puberty, but the childish physique was still prevalent. Two large dark pupils dilated to take in her face from behind the shade of the marble column. Izuru's own eyes narrowed at the glint of gold in the small irises._

_"Me? Not particularly," the child replied kicking her foot out in a nonchalant manner. Seeing that Izuru was not planning on leaving but also confused as to what to do, the girl smirked and continued, "but it looks like you seem to be."_

_"I am not!" Izuru's temper flared. She did not know what it was about that annoying look that she was receiving, but it made it impossible to keep her usual cool air. "What is your business here?"_

_"Oh, finally taking me seriously are we?" the child's smile intensified until Izuru could see every pearly white tooth. "Well, if you must know, I am looking for a certain person."_

_Izuru found herself curious despite the nagging in her mind telling her to just earthbend the brat over the wall rising in the distance. "Who would that be?"_

_"I was hoping to find the leader of the Dai Li."_

_Izuru felt like she had been slapped in the face by a platypus-bear. The decision to reopen the circle of spies had only just been passed two days before. There was no way that a runt would know such a thing. There must have been a hole, someone had slipped through all of her precautions and made it public knowledge. She stepped back, panicking, something completely against her nature. She was calm; she was collected in the face of a stressful situation. But if word got out, then she would lose the advantage of secrecy, not to mention that many noblemen would question the King's choice and she would have to battle their arguments._

_"Don't faint on me. No one outside of the King, yourself, your soon-to-be agents, and I know of this as of yet," the cheeky smirk was back. Izuru wanted to smack it off. Her heart was ramming against her ribcage; the pressure in her veins built up until she felt like her capillaries would explode._

_"But how… you… it was a secre-" Izuru began to stutter. Her lips were quivering and a cold feeling was clawing its way up her tense spine._

_"And it still is… unless someone decides to accidentally let slip that the Earth King is instigating the most feared and corrupt Dai Li once more. That would be quite the disaster," the girl chuckle lightly and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. Izuru's eyes glared daggers at the innocent façade the girl was putting on. _So she wanted to play, _Izuru growled in her mind, _I am the greatest mind in the entire Earth Kingdom. Let's see what futile attempts at blackmail this brat has planned for me.

_"What do you want?" Izuru grimaced._

_ "Well, Miss Kain- is it alright if I call you that?"_

_Izuru stared, unbelieving, as her name left the light cherry red lips of the fourteen-year-old. How the stranger had procured her name when Izuru had been adamant that only the king and her tutors should know her identity, she had not even the slightest inkling._

_"I'll take your silence as a 'yes' then," the girl continued. "In return for my silence- which I pledge upon my honor as a firebender- I want ten minutes of your time."_

_Izuru's head whirred as she processed this. _A firebender, here in Ba Sing Se_. It was not unheard of, but hostilities were still high against the southerners. The nationality was not of imminent importance at the present moment in any case. Izuru knit her brows. Ten minutes was all the little whelp wanted. She had nothing to lose, and once the kid was done, she would ensure that some kind of tragic accident befell her on her way out. _

_"Your answer?" came the impatient, prodding remark from the firebender._

_"Fine, but not here," Izuru acquiesced._

_"Well, lead the way," the girl strutted to stand before her. The height difference somehow did not help to quell Izuru's nerves as the twin flames in the girl's gaze bore down upon her. _

_They walked through about twenty different passages, being careful to avoid any populated areas. The servants may have been deaf and blind to the comings and goings of the nobles, but Izuru held no trust in them. At last, she reached the old library where she knew they would not be overheard. Her hand skimmed a small, dusty shelf standing alone by a rather large, very solid-looking wall. A light green book caught against her finger and she pulled it out until the small string attached to its binding clicked open the hidden lock. Without a sound, thanks to the precision of the hidden door's carving, a small passageway was unveiled. Izuru was about to grab for one of the torches lying on the floor by the entrance, when a small hand grabbed her own. It was warm and soft, definitely of a child born of wealth, but also had a crudeness to it suggesting long hours of training and physical strain. Her green eyes locked onto gold, half hidden by pearly lids and long eyelashes._

_"I can light the way," the girl moved past the startled earthbender, breaking the contact of their hands, and ignited her other palm with a minor inferno. Izuru did not think that she could have been surprised by anything at that point, but looking down at the infant blue fire that snaked around the girl's pale fingers quickly indicated otherwise._

_"Fine," she grumbled, moving to go alongside the girl. The passageway was cramped and they had to brush shoulders in order to fit, much to Izuru's increasing irritation. The door swung in behind them, clicking into place as the book returned to its forgotten and dusty position on the dilapidated shelf of a rotting bookcase._

_Their journey through the cobwebbed hall was ended by a small streak of light coming from a sliver in the wall. Izuru mentally noted that it would have to be fixed so that even such a miniscule crack no longer existed. The mystique held within the ancient walls around them had to be preserved; it would no doubt become useful sooner or later. For the time being, Izuru looked past the defect and easily slid the door open to come out into a rather dank and unused corridor that opened into a small garden, the only thing separating the cool stone path and the shiny grass was a frail banister of wood that connected the beams holding up the roof over their heads. Within the garden was a small picnic table underneath a green peach blossom. It was not the season for the pale gossamer flowers to bloom so the majesty was lost, removing any wonder from the mundane tree. Izuru brought her 'guest' to one of the seats. She took the opposite one, hoping the positioning would be even the tiniest hint foreboding for the young adolescent._

_"Ten minutes," Izuru stated flatly, twining her long fingers together to form a sort of pyramid on which to rest her chin. Her elbows did not feel the rough wood of the table due to her long-sleeved robes._

_"I believe that you are one of the youngest people to hold such an esteemed rank since the Hundred Year War," the Fire National began. Izuru nodded as though answering a question, despite the fact that the girl had meant it as a statement. Unperturbed, she continued, "I hold a particular interest in young prodigies."_

_"Time is ticking; you have none of it for flattery. Get to the point," Izuru snipped._

_A flash of something dangerous crossed the molten orbs of the younger speaker. Izuru felt a shudder down her spine. She wanted to flinch, but at the same time she couldn't help but search for it again. To analyze whatever the hell had sent such a foreign stimulus through her veins_

_"Very well," the girl drew herself up, "I believe it would be mutually beneficial for both your nation and mine if we were to combine forces. I am, as you undoubtedly guessed, of the Fire Nation and have a claim for a high position within its court. You already have a high position in the Earth Kingdom-"_

_"What does my nation have to benefit from joining with you?" Izuru cut in. Her patience was wearing thin and she was seriously contemplating just killing the girl now and regretting it later._

_"The elders of Republic City have governed the world's affairs for the past six decades or so. Their overarching power has undermined the authority of the rightful rulers of the nations for more than half a century. I propose a ploy to take back the power."_

_"How?" Izuru was unimpressed._

_"Gather allies in all corners of the world. Usurp the weak governments kneeling at the feet of the Council in Republic City. Rule under a true flag of peace, yet also retain the power to dictate the future of your nation without the necessary consent of a foreign body," the firebender arched an eyebrow as though it were the simplest thing. It seemed as though she was taunting Izuru with the relative obvious nature of her plan. The earthbender was astounded to say the least._

_"That isn't a plan!" Izuru moaned, wondering why she was even wasting her breath. "That isn't even a half-assed idea!"_

_"Unfortunately, I have not yet gotten to know you well," Izuru snorted at the comment. The girl had acquired more information about her than she was comfortable with. "AND I also do not know whether I have your loyalty. Therefore I cannot reveal too much to you at such an early stage. You, of all people, should understand."_

_Izuru did understand. She hated to think it, yet her mouth betrayed her by spouting forth her growing interest, "So, what's in it for me?"_

_The wicked smile gracing the teenager's lips could have been described as nothing short of predatory. The glint was back, stronger and sharper with a heated intensity of someone wise beyond their years._

_"Glory, gold, the throne of the Earth Kingdom if you so wish it," the girl shrugged as though offering the Dai Li agent a cookie instead of a country._

_"Hmm, and if I choose to stay loyal to my King and his decisions?" Izuru gambled. She still felt the attachment of a human disciple to her God when deferring to her ruler, but her resolve slipped with every second she spent in his company. King Daoguang was a sagacious man who dutifully fulfilled his role, but his humanity showed past the divinity bestowed upon him through his blood like rust showed on the finest iron._

_"Then I will leave and find myself another ally. But we both know that you won't refuse me," the girl's eyes pierced straight through Izuru's mind. It was as though she could read every electric impulse running through her head before even she knew it. "I know you still harbor resentment for his compassion toward the commoners. He pities their misfortunes, whereas he turns his back to the plight of the nobility. He saved your family's murderer from the gallows because he was 'a victim of circumstance.' Deep within your heart, you know that you can no longer be loyal to the man who betrayed you; you, through the mercy shown to the traitorous swine who slaughtered them like dogs instead of punishing him as he deserved."_

_Each word was worse than a white searing thorn shot into Izuru's back. Her family had been a subject that everyone knew to never bring up around her. Most had forgotten about it, discarding it with the other 'outdated' gossip of the past. The ones who remembered kept quiet so as not to face her wrath. And now this, this insignificant little thing was using it like some kind of demonic scalpel to carve out Izuru's sanity._

_"Shut up!" Izuru screamed. Her fists were knotted together so tightly that her fingers were numb and her knuckles turned a ghastly white, depicting the marble that constructed her home. She willed her tears back into their ducts. She would not cry in front of this girl. She would not break at the words of a child._

_"Come now. I did not mean it to hurt you," a warm hand pressed against Izuru's pasty cheek. Her eyes snapped up to where the Fire National wore an expression of compassion. Izuru would have almost believed it had she not been such a great liar. The eyes were all wrong, the small dip in the corner of the mouth revealing it for the sham it was. She wrenched her face out of the reach of the scathing hand, glaring at its owner._

_"How do know about my family?" Izuru whispered. Her resolve was breaking in spite of all of her efforts. Her rage was no longer directed at the garden's other occupant, but moving toward the image of the Earth King in her mind. The memory of hearing that the convict would be jailed and then sent home._

_"I make it a point to understand those whom I wish to befriend. It allows for a much smoother conversation," another shrug. Another bored look as though the girl did not realize that she was rending the earthbender in two. "So, we have a deal?"_

_Izuru looked at her clenched hands. Her fingers shook with the loss of blood flow. She was being offered a chance for revenge on all of those filthy bottom dwellers. She was being offered the chance of a Kingdom. Why not? She was already the head of one of history's most powerful societies. The Dai Li had once controlled the Earth Kingdom, why not again? And if the girl failed; she would make sure to not be found affiliated, her slate would be clean and she could start anew. Her emotions tugging at her, not fully giving her mind the space and time to think everything through as she would have done under normal conditions, Izuru raised her head high. _

_"I agree," she hissed through clenched teeth. "And I will take you up on that offer of a kingdom. Don't think to cross me little girl, lest you be sorry."_

_The radiant smile gave her the inclination that her threat had gone unheeded. The kid had courage, Izuru had to give that to her. Whether the trait was a good one or not had yet to be seen._

_"Well then," the girl stood and brushed herself down to rid her clothing of any dust or stray splinter of wood. "I believe that our business is done. I use many methods of communication but you will know if it is me. Make sure to keep in touch."_

_"Wait," Izuru stretched out her arm to grab the tight cloth surrounding the toned bicep of the firebender. "What is your name? It seems fitting that, since you know mine, I know yours."_

_The teenager giggled before turning and waving. Had Izuru not been listening, she would not have heard the utterance of one word, "Kaji."_

Izuru smiled to herself at the memory of that afternoon. Kaji had left, not surprisingly knowing where they were and how to move about the sprawling palace. Izuru had learned not to question certain aspects of her 'leader,' content in leaving them for a later date. Four years had gone by since then, sometimes feeling as nothing and, at others, flowing like molasses. She did not remember when their objective had changed from a general reinstitution of power into a game for world domination, but the earthbender found herself not caring. Kaji had probably planned it to be that way from the beginning. It would be more fun that way anyhow. Now, Izuru centered herself around her upcoming audience with the Earth King. She didn't remember when she had stopped thinking of him as 'her' king. Kaji was the only superior she had now, and even that might change at any moment. Izuru had learned to let go of any affiliation, cutting the binds of loyalty and allowing her the flexibility to plot for her own survival. In her profession, it was the best possible mindset.

"Dai Li Agent Kain," the man by the doors announced before she was let into the magnificent throne room. In days past, the audience hall had been used by all but the most important persons. The throne room had been reserved for them, giving the respect earned by their deeds and continued support of the Crown. All had changed after the 'democratization' movement after the defeat of the Fire nation seventy years ago. Izuru couldn't help but wonder whether she was considered part of the rabble or one of the select few. Either way, it mattered not anymore.

"Your Highness," she bowed to her knee in front of the intricate dais. The steps leading up to the throne were covered at the top by a flowing green fabric that led up to two finely garbed feet and strongly muscled calves. The mark of royalty, light greens and gold, contrasted deeply with her dark material and bronze outlining. Still, the man under all of the extravagance and opulence was as much made of flesh and bone as she was. His long dark hair was wound in the ceremonial braid representative of his honor and glory. Deep set emerald gems resided within his eye sockets, gleaming in the faint light but also turning a murky black under the shadows. King Daoguang was powerfully built to resemble the ox sign under which he was born. His arms bulged under the tight silks as he gripped the arms of his throne. It was made for men much more petite than him and he looked rather cramped and uncomfortable. Many had laughed at the 'Kind Giant' who had ascended the throne after his father had passed, but no one would dare laugh in his face. The outlines on his forehead and around his eyes showed the strain of his responsibilities. The good king always seemed to have more difficulty in ruling than the tyrant, but Izuru felt him weaker for his pity and mercy.

"Rise Agent Kain. Tell me, what have you been up to since our last encounter?" the booming deep voice matched his massive build. The powerful chest and heaving lungs exhaled the air through vocal chords that shaped it into the heavy sound of a beating drum.

"I wish I had good tidings to bring," Izuru's head was still lowered in deference even though she hated every minute.

"Ah, but is there anything but bad tidings worth mentioning?"

"It would appear not, Your Highness," Izuru replied.

"Come then, I await your report."

Izuru outlined the state of the Earth Kingdom councilman, watching closely as the King's eyes progressively grew slimmer and the anger was burning brightly within the ebony pupils. His grief at the death of his friend was evident in his breathless exclamation, but he quieted himself to hear the rest of the tale. Izuru did not skip any embellishment where she could add it; her portrayal of the betrayal and vile treachery of the Northern Water Tribe was greatly exaggerated. Still, it garnered the desired effect. Daoguang's incredulity at the Fire Lord's death was only quelled by gnashing his giant teeth together to keep the sound in. Where he would have been cautious and curious about the new Fire Lord that had stepped forth, he was too blinded in sorrow at the loss of a great friend and amiable acquaintance to pay much mind.

"What is the course you wish to take, Your Highness?" Izuru inquired. Her voice was silky, soothing but not enough to let the man's emotions die down. She needed his irrationality now more than ever.

King Daoguang rose from his stiff, over-decorated chair and moved down the steps to stand before her. Only by his leave did she look up to see his face. The humanity broke through in every crease and wrinkle. The wetness behind his eyes and the tightness in his lips were anything but divine. He was mortal, and as such he was able to be manipulated.

"I would like to open up channels of commerce between this Fire Lord Kaji. Make it out to be our condolences for her loss and the loss of the Fire Nation. Within it, send an encrypted message inquiring into any knowledge she might lend us as to who perpetrated this crime. If it is indeed found that Satren is to be blamed, then I will have compensation or… well, let us hope the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe is in a mood for repentance."

With that, Izuru swept out of the room, moving through the familiar wings of her home. The marble was ever so inviting in its strong arms, willing to envelop her within the hidden tomes held in the old walls. Still, she had one more stop to make before she could retire and write to the Princess, no Fire Lord, confirming that the plan had gone splendidly.

The inner city was laconic in the light of the sun, lowering into the western hemisphere. Izuru wandered, as though aimlessly, along the bridges and grand houses. Her presence went unnoticed by most, her plain garb having been replaced with one to reflect a more wealthy air. Thus she was taken as just another noblewoman taking a relaxing stroll through the court. The house she was actually going to was located at the eastern side of the circle. It hugged the wall, leaving it accessible, through certain passages, to the outer city. Within it lived Count Fuwa, the fattest, most disgusting gentleman and the largest metal tycoon in the Earth Kingdom. He was known to hold business between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, leaving him the perfect alibi for his 'extra' activities.

Izuru slipped in from a side entrance, moving stealthily along the ceiling using her earthbending. Her fingers loved the feeling of the stone moving under them, bending and swaying like a living mass of muscles, extensions of her own flesh. Within seconds she was hovering over the fat man's study where he happened to be enjoying a rather large snack. Izuru scrunched her nose as he took a massive bite of the leg of some kind of poor animal.

He gave a startled yelp when she dropped down from the ceiling and landed right before him. Fuwa quickly wiped the excess grease from his puffy lips, missing more than half of it and looking rather ridiculous in the process. Izuru grinned cat-like. She loved scaring the poor man, secretly hoping that one day his heart would no longer be able to sustain him and burst from the epinephrine. His usefulness was the only thing keeping him alive up to that point.

"M-miss Kain," he stammered. "I was not expecting you. You will be pleased to know that business is going well-"

"I could care less," Izuru waved him off. "The Dragon wants the wares to become a public commodity. The King still refuses to try it, but his resolve will be broken eventually. All I need is a few more loads, to appease the half of the court and advisors that have already become hooked, and then some more for the rest. As soon as we have Daoguang under our control, it will be easy to make the drug mainstream. That is all. I expect to have the appointed amount distributed to these men by the end of the week."

With that, Izuru placed a crisp list containing two columns of names atop the table in the one corner not currently occupied by food. Her accomplice grasped at the tiny thing with his meaty fingers, the paper slipping from his grasp to leave four tracks of oil along it before he was able to catch it. By the time he looked up, the Dai Li agent was gone. Shaking his head, the man continued with his pre-dinner meal and tucked the list safely in a chest pocket.

**P.S. So yeah, background but some extra events might be the trend for a while until our characters meet again. Hope you enjoyed. REVIEW! Give me a reason to keep on living!**


	20. A Debt to Be Payed

**A/N: This chapter did not want to get written! But, at least it is done now, even though it is short and rather sucky in my opinion. I just needed it as a transition chapter for what comes next. That and I get super lazy during vacation. Not to mention my minor depression and break down at the end of Merlin season 5 (so sad TToTT). Sorry. -_- Anyway, please review and I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: One day! One day I will own all of these lovely things like Avatar and Game of Thrones and Merlin and the list goes on and on. But that day is not today so please do not sue as I do not make any profit off of my thievery of ideas.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"What is the course you wish to take, Your Highness?" Izuru inquired. Her voice was silky, soothing but not enough to let the man's emotions die down. She needed his irrationality now more than ever.

King Daoguang rose from his stiff, over-decorated chair and moved down the steps to stand before her.

"I would like to open up channels of commerce between this Fire Lord Kaji. Make it out to be our condolences for her loss and the loss of the Fire Nation. Within it, send an encrypted message inquiring into any knowledge she might lend us as to who perpetrated this crime. If it is indeed found that Satren is to be blamed, then I will have compensation or… well, let us hope the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe is in a mood for repentance."

"M-miss Kain," Fuwa stammered. "I was not expecting you. You will be pleased to know that business is going well-"

"I could care less," Izuru waved him off. "The Dragon wants the wares to become a public commodity. The King still refuses to try it, but his resolve will be broken eventually. All I need is a few more loads, to appease the half of the court and advisors that have already become hooked, and then some more for the rest. As soon as we have Daoguang under our control, it will be easy to make the drug mainstream. That is all. I expect to have the appointed amount distributed to these men by the end of the week."

"Yes, that Kaji girl. She really is a wonder. Oh how I wish I could acquire her face," Koh rubbed his pincers together in a show of delight. The spiked tail curled back in on itself and then smacked into the ground with a resounding slap. "If I help you, what do I get in return?"

Koh laughed. The sound was akin to the grating of nails against a chalkboard. "How about we play a game? A wager really. I will tell you how to find the firebender, but you have to come back here to me when I call upon you. Then, I will tell you the terms of the bet. Be careful of that girl. I may be the master of faces, but she is not very far behind. What you may think you see may be a mirage created for you by her ploys."

Kaji stood with her back to the setting sun. The castle was quiet in the section she had come to find herself in on one of her evening walks through the grounds. It had been a long time since she had had time to herself, what with the coronation and then the necessary accommodations that came with having a new monarch. It was a rather perfect mess. The clamor of dishes from the far away kitchens indicated that dinner would soon be put upon the table. Kaji's breath let out in a slow sigh, her shoulder blades bunching together as she leaned against the banister on the terrace. The garden behind her back was no doubt being covered in shadows from the adjacent building, leaving the tired turtle ducks to swim into their home at the center of the pond. She did not understand the trend of keeping the infernal things around in every single pool of water on the grounds. If anything, the bread wasted upon them would have fed a whole regiment for a month.

Putting such meandering thoughts aside, Kaji moved away from her relaxed position. It would be the final day of the month of mourning and, as such, it would be the largest feast of all. She would finally be heralded as the new power over the land, not to mention that every slimy, money-grubbing merchant and power-hungry noble would be kissing her feet for recognition. Her eyes narrowed at the prospect. She understood the importance of keeping such vile creatures appeased, but were it up to her she would burn them all to a crisp. Perhaps she could indulge in her pyromaniac tendencies if one were to step out of line. That would be fun indeed.

Her robes swished against the walkways. The wood was still warm from the last remaining vestiges of solar heat, taking on a sort of lackluster mahogany as the braziers began to light with her passing. The blue flames never seemed to stay long after her influence had left them. Perhaps she would invest in the kerosene lamps which kept the fire going at the higher temperatures necessary to feed her cerulean fire. Blue was such a nice color. Red, black and gold were comparable, but there was something about blue. Kaji grinned to herself as she began to think of something else that was blue. Blue eyes, blue clothing, both so perfectly contrasting the darker skin and brown hair that comprised Ko-.

"My Lord," the servant before the doors bowed at the waist before opening the massive wall of wood. Kaji pulled herself together, hating to think of the stupid dreamy face she must have had on when the peasant had addressed her.

Within the dining room was a table that would easily have fit at least thirty people. All seats were filled with dignitaries, wealthy Fire Nationals, and an assortment of decorated foreigners with amiable business interests. The main courses had yet to be served, each plate of silver and gold glistening in the light spilling from the luminous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling far above their heads. Kaji cordially sat in the seat at the head of the table, pulled out for her by one of the many attendants. Next to her, by a secretive request, was her contact in the Earth Kingdom. Her mood was lightening at the prospect of good news, the smug smile on the lips of the wiry man in the fine Earth Kingdom silks doing wonders in alleviating the butterflies within her stomach that just refused to leave. Izuru Kain had sent word nigh a week ago, Kaji having received it a few days prior, that King Daoguang was willing to talk alliances with her. His mistrust of the Northern Water Tribe was palpable within the scrawled characters on the piece of parchment. The only thing she wished for now was a more easily influenced king upon the throne, something she dearly wished her 'friend' sitting beside her could provide.

"How is the welfare of dear King Daoguang these days?" Kaji nonchalantly plopped a grape into her mouth from one of the appetizer trays closest to her. The fruit was delectable, with a faint tanginess to go well with the sugary nectar sliding down her throat.

"He is taking well to the product. I was informed that he partook in a small amount at one of the evenings at a nobleman's house. It had a small effect on him as his system did not take much, but you and I both know how a small amount soon… intensifies," the man's voice was spoken in the hushed tone of a whisper, easily lost to the others as they engrossed themselves into the appearing entrées and their own conversations.

"Quite. The estimation of how long that will take is what exactly?" Kaji inquired. Her eyes flickered around the faces surrounding her, ensuring that no one became privy to their discussion.

"Not much more. It will be soon enough when our little bee will have taken control of the government."

"That is good to hear," Kaji's eyes focused back on the scene unfolding before her, immersing herself into the drawl flatteries and acknowledgements that were meant to warm her to the agendas of those spouting them.

Izuru moved along the halls of her home. It had not taken much to get the King addicted to the elated effects of the strong opium that she had procured from Kaji. With most of the generals and at least half of the population of the lower rings addicted as well, she had virtually no opposition. She would still remain cautious against prospective rabble-rousers, but then again, she had but to slip some of the morphine-filled drug into the systems of any who would move against her and they would become as placid as the poppy where it came from.

Of course, it would not do to have the greatest military minds of the Earth Kingdom muddled by the effects of the opium. Small doses in regular amounts would ensure that they were at the highest analytical thought point once they were within a meeting. And, Izuru credited herself a bit in a brief narcissistic moment, she was not a novice when it came to planning for war. It would be soon in coming too. The supplies were being amassed, the soldiers fitted in their exercises, and the people were even at this early stage being fed propaganda to transition them smoothly into the taxes they would be paying. All that was left was to 'regretfully' inform the King that Chief Satren's response to the inquiry, into his involvement with the terrorists who attacked Republic City, had never been received. The mood swings caused by a longer period of time without the necessary dosage would have left the man a puppet to her instruments of persuasion.

Korra had no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered doing was sitting at the top of the grassy cliff that led down to the beach where she, Kaji, and Bolin had come to enjoy a free day. That time seemed to have been a lifetime ago even though it was closer to a few months. Tenzin had relieved her from the rest of her work for the evening. It was not that she had that much to do anyway. The treaties and such were all written up by those more adept at that sort of thing. She simply was required to read them, memorize the terms to keep either party from breaking them, and then sign her name if she found it acceptable. It was really the first bit that always stumped her. The boredom induced by having to comprehend all of the political jargon and discard it in order to get to the important bits of the documents was tiring. Meditation always helped quiet her mind from such things. It had been a long day.

Her eyes returned to assessing the immediate environment surrounding her, a dynamic distinction between the arid desert and her small alcove on Air Temple Island. The ground around her was so parched that massive cracks ran in spidery tendrils as far as the hazy horizon which was a sickly mixture of yellow and blue from the sands picked up by the air. The wind was dry; no trace of water touched Korra's lips and eyes, leaving her to run her tongue over her skin and blink to retain moisture. Both actions were only temporary reliefs. Other than the small granules of fine rock particles shifting under her feet and about her frame, there was no movement to be discerned. That, of course, did not mean that there was no life here. It was obviously some part of the Spirit World that Korra had unwittingly stumbled into whilst trying to center her thoughts. It was strange, however, that she had shown such a lack in control to have been swept into some middle-of-nowhere portion of the spectral realm.

Korra turned her head to peruse the landscape, creating a three hundred and sixty degree view. On the third time around, her pupils dilated to take in a shape that had not been there before. It was not far, or perhaps it was big and thus stood out as the sole occupant of the barren earth. Korra's eyes tried to train on it, seeking some kind of identification as to what the hell it was, but each time she seemed to focus, her eyesight blurred and it returned to an image just off of her periphery. Korra knew it was dangerous, especially when tall, dark things suddenly appeared where seconds before there had been nothing, but her curiosity and the fact that she had no inkling as to where she was drove her to start a steady pace in the direction of the thing.

A few yards away and Korra began to make out that it was most definitely not a tower or structure built by hand. In fact, the closer she drew to it, the more it began to reveal its true nature as a rather old, rather beaten and burned, old tree. The trunk was massive, thick enough to have at least ten people stand in a circle with arms outstretched and barely create a closed ring around it. The bark looked as though it were charcoal, fragile and shriveled in its ghastly black coloration. Korra's hand was close enough to touch it, her fingers not even two inches from it. She could have reached with a slight extension of her forearm, yet something stopped her. It was seemingly like her fingers felt a heat coming from it and, if she were to lay a hand on it, she would be scalded.

Korra moved her hand back to her side and began to circle her only companion in the vast wasteland. She did not want to say it was a fellow living thing, for she was unsure as to whether the tree was still alive or not and assuming either way seemed to be a mistake. Her eyes swept over each gnarled root and fraying branch; the crown reached up into the pale blue sky and fanned out to stretch far beyond Korra's shadow. She almost jumped at having realized that the darker patch of earth which had suddenly come into being was due to her positioning relative to whatever light source was illuminating the place. She hadn't had a shadow before and neither had the tree. The peculiarity was not lost on her and Korra mentally and physically readied herself for any sort of trap that might be sprung on her.

As though clockwork, on her third pass of the spot where she had come to stand before the blackened wood, Korra stood facing a change in its appearance. Instead of a solid wall barring her entry with its dangerous aura, there was a hollow pathway, just large enough for her to walk through if she kept her head down, leading into the depths within. Hesitantly, Korra inched into the small archway. The heart of the tree lay ahead, shrouded in darkness that was impenetrable even with Korra's fist on fire. Her eyes travelled to the flames, so pale and weak that they looked like mere shimmers, deflections of light playing around her dark fingertips and palm. Still, there was something about holding an element, even if it was only a mirage, which set her slightly more at ease.

The soft skins that made up her shoes allowed for stealthier movement, especially at the pace that she was going. Korra made certain that even the small shuffling of fabric against earth was nigh undistinguishable. A soft dripping sound echoing from somewhere in front of her did well to help mask her presence as well.

A sliver of light caught Korra's attention. Her black pupils, almost fully dilated, began to recede and allow some of her signature blue to surface. It was a small beam, coming from a hole in the crown somewhere above. Every few seconds a small droplet of water would fall down and plop into a small pool that had formed within a portion of the tree that jutted out of the ground. The water had rotted the wood away to form a sort of oval bowl. Korra glanced around her to make sure she was alone. Even though the faint ray filtering through the cobalt air brought a swell of courage to her heart, Korra knew that it also hid what lay behind it from view. And behind it, she knew, lay something in wait. Something old; something vile; something… familiar.

"Ah, young Avatar," a spindly voice reached her ears from beyond. She knew its sound, had prayed to never have to hear it again. "It seems we meet again. I do hope I was not interrupting anything… important."

"Koh," Korra breathed. She instinctively pulled a cover of indifference over her face to hide how frightened she had become. Her fingers and toes felt like they were cased in ice and her spine could not stop the tremors that ran through it. Her mind was moving in a blur, cursing her for not simply attempting to contact Aang or the others and have them transport her out of there. There was no time for that now; she was there and, more importantly, he was too.

"I told you that I would summon you one day," Koh's giant body slid around behind his shield of light. Korra tried not to think about his grotesque, insect sections moving over the bark and stone. It would do her no good to let the fear show; perhaps it was a blessing that she could not see him at the moment. _Picture him covered in daisies or something Korra,_ she tried to think to keep the dread from seeping further into her bones.

"I have decided on my little game," the spirit continued, appearing to all the world as if he did not feel her fear, did not taste her sweat in the air that lacked all other forms of moisture. "Pay close attention to it; I do not like to repeat myself."

Korra nodded shakily, her lips trembling and chapped. She wanted to run her tongue over them so badly but she forced the urge away. Even the twitch of one muscle would condemn her here.

"The new Fire Lord, the girl called Kaji, has set certain events in motion that could bring about an imbalance to the world that has not been seen since the Hundred Year War. As it was then and numerous times past, it will fall upon you as Avatar to keep the balance and stop her," Koh's voice pierced Korra's weakening mental shell. Her fortitude was dying with each word, her insides boiling with a fiery hatred of the thing speaking before her. She knew Kaji. The girl was sometimes a bit impulsive and her temper was nothing to trifle with, but there had to be a mistake. There was no way that she would betray Korra like that. _She wouldn't. She loves me,_ Korra fingered the small betrothal necklace that had been a token to prove just that.

"You're wrong," she voiced out, platonic as was necessary. Her vehemence, at least she hoped, was expressed in the certainty with which she said the words.

"Be silent child," Koh's voice rose into an angry growl, no doubt from having changed his face into a more masculine one. Reverting to the sickly one from before, he continued as though uninterrupted, "Once her traitorous intent becomes clear, you will have to choose between the two. That is where your promise to me comes in."

Within the pool, Korra thought she caught a small flicker of motion. Her face moved to get a better look, but the stillness and uniformity in color of the water, broken only by the occasional ripple, remained stagnant. It was only after she raised her head and peered at it from the corner of her eyes that she saw the faint flashes of scenery again. There was something akin to ice, or definitely a pale landscape. A small flicker of green and gold could be made out before everything morphed into a pillar of red piercing through both other colors. The flag of the Fire Nation waved high as screams of injured and dying men rang out into Korra's ears. It was an uphill battle to keep herself from screaming for it to stop. The only thing that saved her was Koh's slippery words reaching her again.

"Choose the girl over your duty and the world will fall into chaos. The Earth Kingdom already prepares to set sail for the shores of the Northern Water Tribe, supplied by Fire Nation war machines and gold from the coffers of the Earth King and Fire Lord both. If you do nothing, the world will see you as a failure and it will be plunged into disaster. As a resident of the Spirit Realm, I would prefer to see this not happen, but entropy and I have always gotten along splendidly."

Korra opened her mouth to interject but thought better of it when a hiss echoed throughout the small hollow.

"Choose your duty as Avatar and you will be hailed as a hero," the water changed again, showing the four sigils of the nations in harmony with each other. There was another scream, but it died down fairly quickly and it was much quieter than the others had been. Still, Korra much preferred the others to that one; it held so much fear and pain that she could feel her knees weaken. "The war will most probably be abandoned as too costly if you were to assert your powers and cripple the armed forces. Should that happen, I want you to bring the girl to me. You must swear to it, that Kaji will be mine as soon as her armies fall. That is my price Avatar Korra."

Korra's eyes widened; she could not keep them from doing so. For a fraction of a second even the fear of having her face stolen was nothing compared to the horror of hearing Koh's ultimatum. She knew that she would have no choice, really, if it came to that. Kaji was her love, her life, but her life would be forfeit without hesitation if it could save the lives of many others. A war must be prevented at all costs. Then she realized her mistake; the slight twinge of the corners of her mouth, her eyebrows shooting higher on her forehead, her eyes glistening with worry. She knew that Koh must have seen it too. Her eyes clamped shut as she cringed at the thought of what would inevitably happen next. Her hands bunched into fist and her teeth became bared with no further restraint. It was only after a few moments of no change, no feeling of being overtaken, that she peeked out from under her eyelashes. Cruel laughter came from Koh's hiding place. She could hear the sharp tips of his multiple legs clacking against the ground in mirth.

"I would not take you now Avatar," he finally stated after getting over his amusement at her expense. "I have too much to gain from keeping you alive. Do not take my kindness for granted and do not forget our deal. When the time comes, you must bring the firebender to me… or watch your world fall to ruin."

"What if there is no war? What if I prevent it before it even starts?" Korra frantically tried to think of some kind of loophole. Both options were unacceptable and both options would surely be the death of her.

"That is impossible little Avatar," Koh's face came into view as he slid partially into the light. The Noh mask was looking at her peevishly, like she had said something ridiculously stupid and narrow-minded. "The war has already begun."

His face and laugh faded as wakefulness hit Korra like a bucket of cold water. Her hands raked the ground as she got to her feet and ran away from the outcropping of the island cliffs. Tenzin would have answers, Tenzin would know if Koh was lying. And if Tenzin did not know, then Korra was hell bent on finding out the truth. If Kaji really was starting a war… the pure emptiness hit her with such force that a ton of bricks would feel feather light. Kaji had been her support, her rock, when she had felt alone and unwanted. Kaji had been the one who had been there, pushing Korra to find love for herself and realize that she was not second best, not some kind of scrap to be thrown aside for something better. Kaji had been… Kaji had been real and there for Korra when she needed her. The betrayal stung every fiber in Korra's being until the despair turned to rage. The questions became rampant in her head. _Had Kaji been lying? Had she been manipulating Korra from the start, wanting her to put her faith in the firebender so that she would not suspect anything until it was too late? Had it all been a lie? Everything they shared, everything she felt, had it been a charade? _And yet, it did not feel like that. Korra knew that she was more than a little naïve when it came to matters of romance, but Kaji's touch, her emotions, they felt so authentic. Korra could not fathom being able to lie about something like that. Her resolve strengthened, she decided on her course of action. Koh was not to be trusted, even if his perception had not been wrong. The only one who could dispel all of Korra's conflicting thoughts was Kaji herself. So to Kaji she would go.

Korra's hand nearly yanked the door from its hinges, her eyes moving frantically from side to side in the hopes of finding the man she was looking for. Pema's worried face was the first thing Korra took in. Next was the fact that Tenzin had just entered the room from the opposite door, the one that led to the front of the building and the docks to Republic City. Third was his face; the look of concern and stress mixing into a mirror image of her own, minus the anger bit.

"Korra," his tone was a somber one, filled with the crushing responsibility he held and the fact that he would soon have to burden her with it as well. What he couldn't have known was that she already knew. The minute she had seen his face, she knew that Koh had not been lying. The next words that came from the master airbender were only the verbal confirmation she needed to ascertain that this was real. "The Earth Kingdom has declared war on the Northern Water Tribe under the basis that it has committed an act of terrorism against its citizens. The Fire Nation has voiced its support, though Fire Lord Kaji is keeping all of her troops from joining in on the battle."

"I'm going to the Fire Nation," Korra stated flatly, her face a mask of determination. "Now; today; whenever you can get me a ship. I need to know what is going on from Kaji."

Tenzin's expression told Korra that he was going to protest. She knew it in the way that he curved his lips in a frown and his forehead bunched together. Beating him to the punch she shook her head and glared straight into his clear eyes. She would not back down this time. She knew she had to go.

"Very well. I believe I can have something arranged in a few hours. Ready yourself and wait for me at the docks when you are done," Tenzin finally acquiesced.

Korra did not even pay attention to what she was doing, leaving it all to muscle memory as she thought ahead to her meeting with the new Fire Lord. With Kaji. _What are you doing? Are you really trying to start another war? Why?_ Korra rushed out to find the ship waiting for her. It was a supply freighter, easily camouflaging her purpose and presence. Without even a look back, Korra boarded the vessel. While she was lost within her confusion and unease, her fingers subconsciously began to fiddle with the intricate little circle attached to her neck. Following the sun as it moved to the West, the ship progressed to her destination and her confrontation.

**P.S. Thoughts, wishes, complaints... they are all welcome as long as I get those wonderful reviews. To all of you who have, you are amazing people and deserve to live long fruitful lives full of joy and magic! Yes! I tried to base most of Kaji's ploys for world domination on historical events, but I am a science oriented person so the Opium Wars are not very familiar to me. To any history buffs, I apologize profusely. REVIEW! Makes life worth living.**


	21. Confrontations

**A/N: Update for you! From me! Yay! This one is at least longer and more satisfactory than the previous one, so I hope you enjoy it. As my Christmas break is now over, or will be tomorrow, I wish my freetime farewell and I hope that updates will keep being uploaded at least one a week. It's not because I don't care I promise! Anyway, REVIEW! Review as a farewell to vacation and a hello to the New Year! (Even though I'm late by a few days. Not important).**

**Disclaimer: 2013 brought me many things but A:LOK was not one of them and I still have yet to figure out how I will take it. Legal means or thievery? That is the question. **

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"Choose the girl over your duty and the world will fall into chaos."

"Choose your duty as Avatar and you will be hailed as a hero. Should that happen, I want you to bring the girl to me. You must swear to it, that Kaji will be mine as soon as her armies fall. That is my price Avatar Korra."

The questions became rampant in her head. _Had Kaji been lying? Had she been manipulating Korra from the start, wanting her to put her faith in the firebender so that she would not suspect anything until it was too late? Had it all been a lie? Everything they shared, everything she felt, had it been a charade? _And yet, it did not feel like that. Korra knew that she was more than a little naïve when it came to matters of romance, but Kaji's touch, her emotions, they felt so authentic. Korra could not fathom being able to lie about something like that. Her resolve strengthened, she decided on her course of action. Koh was not to be trusted, even if his perception had not been wrong. The only one who could dispel all of Korra's conflicting thoughts was Kaji herself. So to Kaji she would go.

"I'm going to the Fire Nation," Korra stated flatly, her face a mask of determination.

The blue flames that danced along the front of the raised platform that held the throne of the Fire Lord were higher than they had been for a while. The Fire Nation was known for its tropically mild climate and, on most occasions, the temperatures stayed predictably within a narrow range of warm and hot. That day was different. Storm clouds had rolled in from the Northeast, covering the entire parameter of the volcano and the lands beyond it in a chilly cloak of mist. Kaji had situated herself closer to her fire to keep the cold from her hands and feet so she had been forced to relinquish the padded throne for a cushion placed next to one of the pillars to the side of the dais. She had no engagements, something that caused her to become unsettled with wont to do something. The Earth King had set the date for the invasion; the supplies he had requested from her had arrived with no disturbances of any kind; the Northern Water Tribe was still blissfully unaware of the coming onslaught and would be caught off guard quickly; even Republic City, though the council had clearly gotten wind of what was going to happen, had yet to respond in any manner- not that she would take the brunt of their criticism as she was only aiding the Earth Kingdom, not instigating an international dispute. And yet, despite all of those things, there was something about the day that caused her worry. She would have attributed it to the weather phenomenon, but her instincts screamed that it was something else. Something that even she was ill prepared for.

Her back was resting comfortably against the tall marble pillar, its cylindrical shape throwing abstract shadows on the far wall, fluorescent in the unique fire coloration. Her fingers twirled a long strand of hair- it being a casual day Kaji had decided to leave it down for once- relishing in the way the black and blue hues flowed over each other with each loop and release. Her robes had long sleeves which she had pushed back once she was warm enough, allowing for more maneuverability and comfort. Her neck and a good portion of her chest were also uncovered to keep the heat from becoming overbearing. As it was, Kaji was most certainly in no state to be seeing anyone, even a minor servant. She had always prided herself in her attire being immaculate and practical with just a hint of charm for good measure. Her outfit was, however, the last thing on her mind when her keen hearing picked up an angered female voice shouting from behind the doors leading into the throne room. Kaji's interest was piqued, but her body had no intention of moving; like many other firebenders her inner sloth was always worst when the sun was hidden by the cumulonimbus floating below it. Instead, she sufficed in waiting out the argument, too muffled for her to actually pick anything out of it, and try to gather herself into a more presentable state. Her robe was closed until only the milky skin over her collarbone was visible, and her sleeves were let loose to hang just above her fingertips. The flames around her moved higher as she scooted, rather ungracefully, to take a seat on the red velvet cushions that made up the throne. Her hair she kept down since he had forgotten to bring the crown from her bedchambers; a mistake she was keen to not make again.

Kaji had only to wait for a few more minutes before a very flustered and red-faced servant came puffing into the room. The flames hiding her face unfortunately did not give the Fire Lord access to see the others beyond the doors before they were shut by the servant. Her eyebrows quirked up as he ran to prostrate himself before her as though he were committing a vile sin just by being there. The overacting of the staff was always a welcome amusement to the girl sitting behind the fire. She was all too happy that her element hid the smirk she could not restrain. Whichever Fire Lord had thought up of it was a genius in her book.

"M-my Lord," the little man tripped over his words. He was skinny, so much so that even his long, flowing clothing was unable to conceal his slight frame. His hair was receding, making his forehead appear somewhat larger than is would have been had the hairline been in the same position as it had been in his youth. The red and gold patterns playing on his attire marked him as one of the palace servants and a higher one at that. The lowest ranking ones were allowed to wear only dark shades of maroon, the colors lightening as the household social rank increased. The man's indicated that he was perhaps a trusted messenger or loyal secretary to one of the noble houses or maybe even to the Crown itself. Kaji had meant to get more acquainted with her staff, but the recent increase in pace when it came to her objective had inhibited her from doing so.

"Speak," she directed in a monotone. Her, _minimal,_ she added in her head, excitement was well covered up as it would not do to show that she was even mildly interested in what was awaiting from behind the doors.

"T-there is someone who demands to have an audience with you," the man's voice was hard to hear over the crackling fire and the sleeves which muffled the sound coming from his lips. Kaji's eyebrows quirked up in unhindered surprise. Not many were able to 'demand' anything from the Fire Lord. In fact, she could probably count them off on her well manicured fingers; not to mention that only one struck her as compulsive enough to state it like that. The man's nasally voice brought her back from her musings. Another thing about cloudy days; they apparently shot her attention span to hell. "Sh-she seems to be really adamant about it."

Kaji wanted to burst out laughing at the way the cowering servant looked over his shoulder as though the girl would burst through any second and try to eat him. Instead she settled for a broader grin and placed her flames even higher so she could slump into her chair and straighten her legs without the man noticing. He must have taken the eruption of cerulean fire as a sign of her irritation on the matter because the man burst into a long string of apologies that left Kaji wondering if he would keel over due to loss of oxygen.

"It's alright, let her in," Kaji interrupted some form of plea about sparing the man's family; quite unnecessarily overdramatic on his part, not to mention worthless since, if she was actually as angry as he thought she was, no amount of begging would save anyone with a hint of blood relation to him.

"A-are you sure My Lord?" his incredulity was unmistakable.

Kaji, to have a bit of fun before facing whatever lay in store for her once the young Avatar was allowed in, brought her voice down to a low hiss just loud enough to be picked up over the roar of the flames and growled, "Are you questioning my judgment?"

The servant's face turned so pale that even paper would have taken on a yellowish hue if placed next to it. His throat constricted until his larynx was rendered completely useless and all that escaped his gaping mouth was a high-pitched whistle of air leaving his frozen lungs. Kaji couldn't help the low chuckle that time. Her hand went up to stifle anything louder lest she appear to not take his incompetence seriously.

"Leave and let her in," Kaji finally commanded when she had herself under control. Thinking back, perhaps it was the giddiness of seeing Korra again after a month and a few days away that had her in such high spirits. She would have to make sure she kept the bubbly feeling in the pit of her stomach in check until they were alone.

"Of course My Lord," the man practically cracked his skull open on the hard marble floor as he tripped over his garment in his haste to leave and fulfill her command. The doors opened for him to slip out and then shut. Outside, more words were exchanged, probably him trying to assert himself after the utter ass he had made of himself within the throne room. Finally, the twin blocks of wood swung forth for the person Kaji had been anticipating.

Korra had not exactly had a plan of how she was going to confront Kaji. The palace was heavily guarded and she doubted that even she would have the authority to just waltz in as though she owned the place. Perhaps what she lacked in political influence, she could make up for in vindication and attitude.

As it so happened, sheer luck and charm had gotten her past the few sets of doors that led into the massive building that was representative of all of the people of the Fire Nation. Korra couldn't help but marvel again at how like a flame the building could look; reaching into the clouded sky light a pyre that could never be extinguished. In the patches of filtering light coming through a particularly thin layer of dense water vapor, the golden spires and trimmings seemed to produce their own light and warmth. Within the palace, the dark corridors lit by candles held a sort of sullen mood to accompany the weather outside. Even the servants looked like they felt the effects of the absence of the sun: a few girls lounging around in between chores; some men walking about slowly as though they could not be bothered to hurry; at one point the cook even left one of his delectable dishes in the oven for too long and the smell of burnt food filled the shady hallways. Korra also felt the mood, though for other reasons. Her resolve, so strong at the outset of her journey, was fading with each step that brought her closer to Kaji. One of the men who had allowed her into the palace walls was leading her toward the throne room, luckily for her as Korra had completely forgotten the way. It had been quite a while since she had come here after all.

Her mind raced forward to her encounter with the new ruler of the Fire Nation. She didn't want to have her fears affirmed, to hear that Kaji indeed was aiding in the instigation of a world war, but it was a fading hope. Upon her arrival at the docks of the Capital she had seen the large military warships being loaded with large cannons and barrels of other supplies. The man with whom she had talked had assured her that only items were being sent over to the Earth King's forces, that recruits were being kept on the island for the time being, as though it should have put her at ease. Korra winced at the memory. Kaji had betrayed her. It didn't matter if Kaji hadn't done anything directly to harm Korra; she must have known that as the Avatar it was Korra's duty to keep such conflicts from happening. It was fucking selfish! Korra didn't want to have to bring down the Earth King or his allies- mainly the ally that she was currently madly in love with and terribly upset at.

"Fuck it, Kaji," Korra muttered under her breath, "Why'd you have to make things so difficult?"

"I'm sorry Miss," the guard in front of her turned to look over his shoulder. He had a handsome face with a pronounced jaw line and soft grey eyes. His ember hair was long enough to sweep into his eyes, making him shift his head to sweep the bangs to the side. His voice was gentle, nice as he inquired, "Did you say something?"

"Huh? No," Korra shook her head violently before slumping her head down between her raised shoulders and continuing to follow him quietly. Her reaction earned her a confused look from her guide, but he took it in step and made no further comments.

Korra wasn't brought out of her thoughts until she bumped into the back of the man helping her. Her eyes shot up with an apology at the tip of her tongue when her pupils shifted and she came face-to-face with someone she had hoped to never have to see again. It was the rude guy who had first given them the tour when Tenzin had brought her to the Fire Nation for Iroh's coronation as Crown Prince. The fact that he was glaring at her with the most pronounced scowl she had ever seen indicated that he had not forgotten about her either.

"What is the meaning of this Raigel?" his voice made Korra's teeth grind inadvertently. The way he talked down to the guard who was at the moment scratching his head in confusion made Korra all the more upset. _Just who does he think he is?_ she mentally fumed.

"The Avatar is here to speak with the Fire Lord," Raigel replied, still miffed as to why he was being chided when he was certain that he had done the right thing. The girl was the Avatar after all, and he was certain that the Fire Lord would want to know what she had to say.

"And does the Avatar have an appointment?" the infuriating man standing protectively in front of the double doors leading to Kaji. Korra almost wanted to waterbend him to the other side of the palace to show just how futile his macho act was. Instead, she held her tongue and left it to the guard, Raigel, to hopefully get her in.

"Do you?" Raigel asked innocently. His face, still showing the insecurity of youth and inexperience, was silently hopeful that she did so he could avoid getting yelled at. Korra deflated as she shook her head. She might have been able to pull off a lie if it hadn't been _that guy, whatever his name was,_ standing in her way. No doubt he would ask her for some kind of written documentation or something else that she simply did not possess.

"Well then, Avatar or not, she can go through the proper channels and set one up," the man sniffed, sticking his nose in the air and actually managing to look down at them even though he was shorter.

Raigel turned to Korra, but seeing the despairing look in her eyes and being a kindhearted man himself, decided to try one more time. He knew how much of a pain the man could be. "Come on Korsan, I know Fire Lord Kaji doesn't have any appointments today. Surely she won't be upset about having the Avatar-"

Before he was even able to finish, Korsan had raised a hand in a silencing gesture. "My decision is final and, as the head secretary of Fire Lord Kaji's meetings, I cannot allow this infraction on the rules. Avatar Korra will have to go about getting an audience through the legal means and, unless you feel like losing your job today Raigel, you will escort her out."

Korra's face had turned a livid shade of red. She wasn't about to take his snide-ness lying down so, when Raigel tried to turn her around by placing a heavy hand on her shoulder, she roughly shoved him off and grabbed the hem of the robes that Korsan was wearing. She surprised even herself by how easily she held him aloft and smacked him into the wall. The fear that was evident in his wide eyes only spurred her on and, before she even knew what was happening, she was going off on him full blast while the poor man tried to keep breathing as her knuckles buried themselves into his trachea. Even Raigel was so caught off guard that his mind simply could not come up with an action to perform that could save the unfortunate recipient of Korra's anger and tension. Said girl didn't even know what she was saying, yelling obscenities and remarks against Korsan's pompous attitude before finally running out of steam and releasing him with a screamed order of getting her into the throne room before she really lost her temper. Korsan may as well have grown wings; he flew into the room so quickly in his escape from Korra's vice grip.

A laughing Raigel was the first thing that registered after Korra stopped seeing red. She turned to him with an abashed look, almost pleading with him to tell her that she had not just assaulted the man who was supposedly in charge of allowing her access to Kaji. His smile never faded as he exclaimed, "I think you just did what the entire palace has wanted to do for years."

Korra couldn't help but smile at that. She was still embarrassed about losing her cool, but at least he wasn't throwing her out on grounds of disturbing the peace. Not too long after, an even paler Korsan returned from the chambers on the other side of the door. His lips quivered with barely suppressed dread, leaving even Korra somewhat baffled as to what Kaji had said to him to elicit such a response. His knees were shaking so badly that he had to lean against a wall; Korsan indicated that she could enter. Raigel opened the doors, letting Korra in and then closed them. Korsan's chattering teeth were lost to the soundproofing walls. All mirth gone, Korra looked in front of her where the signature wall of fire of the Fire Lords raged before the dais where the throne was. The flames were so different than Inzei's had been, somehow cooler even though Korra knew that they were much hotter than any red or orange ones could ever become. A silhouette was all she could make out of the girl seated on the other side. The tip of the throne was all that could be seen clearly, that and the wall and pillars in the background. Then, so suddenly that Korra had to wonder if the fire had ever been, the flames ceased to exist. Korra's blue eyes were now freely able to meet Kaji's molten gold ones. Whereas one held trepidation and hurt, the other girl was bursting with excitement. It was then that Korra knew Kaji was expecting something other than what she had come for. The realization almost broke her anew.

"Korra," Kaji exclaimed. She rose from her seat and practically bounded over to where the Avatar stood with a complexion of stone. Kaji's steps faltered until she was approaching Korra with a caution shown to a wounded, dangerous animal. In a sense, Korra felt just like one; her emotions were running in unpredictable circles and she didn't know if she wanted to hug Kaji or punch her in the face for all the trouble she caused. The rage she had felt after seeing Koh and Tenzin's admission was back, burning in the pit of her heart with as much force as the passion of seeing the Fire Lord again.

Settling for neither, the younger girl let out a biting question that she had held since leaving Republic City, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Kaji stopped dead in her tracks. Her face held the expression of someone who had just been slapped for no obvious reason. Her mouth was slightly open, the corners still raised in a smile though they were quickly turning down. The hands that had been hanging in midair, ready to pull her lover into a warm embrace, fell defeated back at the side of the firebender.

"W-what do you mean?" Kaji's voice was quiet, unsure. Korra hated hearing it that way; it made her whole being shake with the need to protect the other girl, pull her into her arms and hide away from the world and all its perils. But this time it was Kaji herself that was a peril.

"I mean, why are you helping the Earth King in his invasion of the Northern Water Tribe? You must know that it is wrong," Korra's eyes searched, implored, for Kaji to magically snap out of whatever was causing her to act this way and reconsider her involvement with King Daoguang. Far from her wish was the spiteful voice with which Kaji answered her pleas.

Kaji had not been expecting Korra to confront her about the invasion. For a brief, horrible second Kaji wondered if Korra had somehow uncovered her entire scheme. Then she remembered that, if it were so, the Avatar would not be asking her about her support of the Earth King; rather, Korra would probably unleash all hell on her through the Avatar State. As such, Kaji quickly reverted to her scripted answers. Much as she had hated to think of Korra questioning her, she had also known the inevitability of it. The younger girl was not stupid; she would have to be convincing. If there was just one thing Kaji could not accept, it was losing Korra's love, even if she had to lie for it. Even if she had to give up on the world domination she had sworn she would achieve. She would not lose Korra.

Kaji's lips were thin as she bit out her retort, scathing as the fires she wielded, "Why? Why do you think? I was stuck in a refrigerator for weeks on end, tortured and left to die, all on the orders of Chief Satren. If you want to look to the real reason for this war, it is not my choice to aide Daoguang in his offense, but the actions of the Chief whom you are now protecting."

Korra flinched, remembering the state in which she found Kaji in the cellar of the small compound in the barren arctic wasteland. The way she had looked so small and half dead. Her tone was small, unsure, where she had been so convicted before, Korra whispered, "But a war is not the answer."

"I would agree, Korra," Kaji's words were soft now. Her hand reached out to cup Korra's cheek, bringing up her face so that Korra had a clear view of Kaji's visage. The small smile playing at the corners of her supple red lips was almost enough to make Korra discard the entire issue. Almost.

"Then why don't you?" Korra asked, gripping Kaji's wrist to keep her hand on her cheek. Kaji had no intention of moving away, doing the exact opposite by coming forward until they were so close that Korra could smell the jasmine on Kaji's skin.

"Because I have already sworn my allegiance to King Daoguang in the matter. They killed one of my people Korra. They almost killed me. Going back on my word now would look like cowardice or worse, treason in favor of Satren over Daoguang. I cannot have both the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom plotting against me," Kaji explained. She had to have Korra play along only a little more. If she could convince her to just remain impartial long enough for Izuru to secure the Northern Water Tribe capital, that would be enough.

"Then do it for me," Korra cried, desperate. If she could just keep the war from breaking out; keep from having to make Koh's choice. She wanted to cry, to tell Kaji that she would be torn apart if she had to condemn her in exchange for saving the world and restoring the balance. She wanted to tell Kaji that, if she continued on like this, they would both become victims of the wily spirit. But she could not tell her such things. Koh was not someone to be betrayed.

"You know I would," Kaji's other hand went up to cradle Korra's other cheek.

"But you won't?" Korra breathed, each word more labored than the last.

"But I cannot. There is more at stake than what I want. I have to think about the security of my subjects Korra. I need to make sure the other nations know that the Fire Nation will not take their crimes without some kind of reparations."

"Don't you get it?" Korra yelled, the intensity of her voice startling Kaji and herself. She continued despite the worried look she was being given by the firebender. "I am going to have to stop Daoguang. I'm going to have to stop YOU! I'm going to have to fight YOU!"

Korra shook herself away from the other girl. Kaji's hands reached for her again but the look Korra gave her said that the gesture was unwelcome. Korra waited for Kaji to say something. Kaji waited to see what the Avatar would do next; trying to find some way to convince Korra that she was not abandoning her.

"Korra I-" Kaji started.

"Don't," Korra interrupted. She could see it in Kaji's eyes that she was not going to back off and that her mind was set. "If you have any love for me, any at all, you will stop this."

Kaji blanched. Korra stiffened. There, she had said it. She had forced Kaji into the corner while also leaving herself open to all that she feared. She had opened herself up to heartache once more; for if Kaji were to not choose her, Korra did not know what she would do. If the one person who was able to convince her of her self-worth turned and dismissed her love as second to something else, there would be nothing substantial left in those words. Kaji would have lied; even if she did love Korra as much as she said, the damage would be done. Kaji could see it in Korra's eyes. She knew that what she said at that moment could be their ruin. Her whole core was shaken by the conflicting feelings within her. She had her duty to the woman who had saved her from her fate, raised her in her image, died without asking for a single thing in return except this. And she was so close. So close she could taste the fruits of her years of training and gathering allies. But what was the cost of it? To lose the one girl who made her entire life seem brighter, even in the darkest nights. To lose the one person who rode a polar bear-dog across an entire continent to save her. Was anything worth that? Kaji's eyes darted around the room, taking in everything that she had gained; everything that she owed to her grandmother. If only it was her choice to make alone, there would be no doubt, no falter, but it was not.

"I-" Kaji stammered. Korra looked at her, hating that it was taking the girl so long to answer. "I do love you Korra, more than I've loved anyone before. I need you to know that!"

Korra's face fell, her eyes becoming a dull distortion of their sapphire beauty. She hated how her voice still shook when she said, "So that is your answer then?"

Kaji bit her bottom lip. She craved to take the Avatar into her arms and mumble soothing nothings into her ear until she looked at her with the intense passion she had once held. "Korra I'm not choosing it over you, I just-"

"Save it," Korra bit out. Her eyes were shut in an attempt to keep the tears from sliding out. Her mouth was set in a hard, thin line to keep her screams from leaving her throat, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth until she was certain that she would choke on it. She wanted to say something angry, something to hurt Kaji so that she felt as empty as Korra did. She wanted to make Kaji rue the day she had ever decided to play with Korra's emotions. She wanted to scream that she had never loved Kaji, just to give her a taste of what rejection felt like. Instead, all she could do was turn on her heel and burst from the throne room. She didn't notice Raigel's surprised exclamation or Korsan's frightened squeal as she ran past them. She didn't see Kaji rush after her and then stand forlornly at the center of the hallway, looking as Korra disappeared from sight. Korra just ran. She kept running until she reached the docks. She catapulted herself over the railing and used her waterbending to create large pillars of water which she used as makeshift stepping stones until she was able to land on the ship she had come on. The captain had been instructed to wait for her before returning to the Earth Kingdom so, with no thought as to why his passenger looked like someone had torn her open and made her watch as her blood and organs spilled out, he turned on the giant engines and began the voyage back. Korra found a quiet little nook where she let go of all of her anguish, her cries quieted by the piece of her jacket that she held firmly between her teeth.

Kaji paced the entire span of her room, her eyebrows knit together and her eyes clamped down tight. She had become accustomed to the chambers and had counted the exact number of steps it took her to get from one end of the expansive quarters to the other. She had only tripped over something once, regaining her balance and cursing as she kicked the offending piece of armor under her bed. It was perhaps not the best thing to do as her toe throbbed painfully for another half hour after that. Still, the physical pain was nothing in comparison to the virtual Tartarus of her mind. When she had said those things, made those decisions, she had stupidly assumed that Korra would understand and forgive her in time. She had completely forgotten the insecurity Korra held after Mako's rejection and departure. Thinking back on it made the Fire Lord want to slam her head into the nearest wall or conveniently placed piece of furniture.

"Oh fuck it all!" she moved toward the door that led out of her bedroom. She wasn't about to let her dimwittedness drag down the one person who she had grown to care about since the passing of Princess Azula. Her grandmother would understand, and even if she didn't… well, she would have the entire afterlife to chide her about letting her heart rule her head. So, with a new fire kindled within her chest, Kaji left to procure herself a way to follow Korra and damn the consequences.

"My Lord!" Korsan exclaimed when she slammed through the small entrance to his office. It was well into the evening, Korra having arrived early in the day.

"Get me a ship to Republic City. I want it ready for departure by tomorrow evening at the latest. Also, make sure that any engagements I have for the next two weeks are either taken care of by my advisors or pushed back until my return."

Korsan looked ready to blow a gasket, but he smartly kept his mouth shut and nodded before digging for the schedule book he always kept tucked in his desk. His curiosity caused him to sneak a glance at the distressed girl that stood in his office. Kaji was looking down at her fingers, not really inspecting them for flaws as much as needing something to occupy herself with while waiting. He had never seen her in such a panic; all of the times he had contact with her, she had been the perfect example of a calm individual. In the back of his mind, he wondered if it had something to do with the meeting with the Avatar girl earlier that day. She had left in quite the rush as well.

"I am paying you to do as I tell you, not analyze my motives Korsan," Kaji's cold words shook Korsan out of his thoughts and he realized that he had been staring at her. Bowing and uttering a quick apology, he returned to making notes in the calendar.

"Y-your sh-ship will be ready f-for you My Lord," he managed. Not even a second after he had finished, his door was slammed shut by the Fire Lord as she whisked out of his office. Signing, he checked his pulse and wondered whether his job was going to give him a heart attack or some form of cancer before long.

The ship docked into the port at Air Temple Island just as the sun was rising on the seventh day of their journey. Korra was cramped, soggy from the morning mist, and miserable. She had hoped that the journey would give her enough time to think about things and calm down her hammering heart. Instead, it had only let the depression settle in and bring her pulse to a near standstill. It was almost as though she was kept alive by sheer apathy. Her eyes didn't even meet Tenzin's as he met her at the entrance to the Air Temple. Korra's hair had been pulled down, something he hadn't seen since the onset of Mako's departure had actually hit her. It was all the answer the master airbender needed. His hand wove over Korra's shoulders to pull her into his embrace but she barely even felt it. It was as though everything around her was a mirage of grey bleakness. The only thing that seemed in color was the sun, and it was even more painful to look at. Korra made up her mind in the personal comment of _all of Agni's children are damn assholes._

"Korra?" a voice that tickled at her ears said. It was concerned, but also happy. The soft masculine lilt of each word was so familiar and yet ethereal at the same time, as though spoken by a ghost. Korra's eyes moved up to take in the dark amber eyes and tussled hair that pointed up to the ceiling in a spiky, yet flowy hairdo. As her brain was finally able to comprehend what was going on, only one word was able to leave her mouth.

"Mako?"

**P.S. Cliffhanger! Don't you just love those, I know you do. Please leave any comment you would like, as long as you leave something. I accept flames and fire extinguishers... that makes no sense. Good morning, day, or night whenever you are reading this! **


	22. Consequence

**A/N: Alive and updating. I really wnated this chapter to be flowing and perfect but instead it came out a little rushed- not too bad in the end I hope. I was rereading some of the previous chapters to remember some of the plotlines and whatnot and I realized that my author notes were atrocious. Made me want to smack myself. But it was like 11pm on a schoolnight when I posted them so yeah. that is my excuse. But finals are finally over (yes!) and I have a four-day weekend cause of the deficit in California (kinda confused on what emotion that brings out of me). Anyway, here is chapter 22 and I hope you enjoy it. Review with flames or compliments. Shower me in them, or torch me in them- at least I like hot temperatures :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but I am going on a crusade to steal Merlin so that I can make a season 6 and I don't have to look at my computer in disgust every Saturday and notice the empty space where new episodes used to pop up.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"Don't," Korra interrupted. She could see it in Kaji's eyes that she was not going to back off and that her mind was set. "If you have any love for me, any at all, you will stop this."

"I-" Kaji stammered. Korra looked at her, hating that it was taking the girl so long to answer. "I do love you Korra, more than I've loved anyone before. I need you to know that!"

"Save it," Korra bit out.

The captain had been instructed to wait for her before returning to the Earth Kingdom so, with no thought as to why his passenger looked like someone had torn her open and made her watch as her blood and organs spilled out, he turned on the giant engines and began the voyage back. Korra found a quiet little nook where she let go of all of her anguish, her cries quieted by the piece of her jacket that she held firmly between her teeth.

"Get me a ship to Republic City. I want it ready for departure by tomorrow evening at the latest. Also, make sure that any engagements I have for the next two weeks are either taken care of by my advisors or pushed back until my return," Kaji ordered.

Korra's eyes moved up to take in the dark amber eyes and tussled hair that pointed up to the ceiling in a spiky, yet flowy hairdo. As her brain was finally able to comprehend what was going on, only one word was able to leave her mouth.

"Mako?"

Korra was dumbfounded. That was the only word that was able to fully encompass how her mind turned from raging mess of harried thoughts into complete nothingness in less time than it took for her to take a breath. It couldn't be him; there was just no possible way, for all of the coincidences or spirit-induced fates in the universe, there was no way for him to be there at that moment. To be standing with the same old red scarf hanging precariously around his muscular neck and wide shoulders and his small smile that looked equal parts confident and shy in a vortex of oxymoron, as though he had never left. As though he had always been there and Korra was the one who had gone off to some strange, far off place and now she was returned, broken and shallow. The same feelings as when he had vanished from her world, only now it had been another who caused the emptiness and pain. In just that one word, that one movement of his lips when he said her name, it felt like she was remade. And yet, far from vanquishing the loss and hurt that had been left in the wake of Kaji's lack of candor, his presence served only as a distraction. A lovely distraction nonetheless and Korra soon found herself wrapped around him like some kind of human pretzel, mumbling 'hello's and 'how are you's with such ferocity that the words came out jumbled and unintelligible.

Mako's arms came to slip around her back and pull her tighter into him. The sensation of his strong biceps against her back and the warmth given off by his skin, even through the bulky grey jacket, was like coming home. It was so familiar and Korra ached for its stability, even with the instability that he had caused less than a year past. He gave a throaty chuckle against her head, burrowed safely into the crook of his neck where she could comfortably lose herself to the musky smell of his body, and said, "Good to see you too Korra."

Korra was at a loss for anything to reply. It was frustrating how she tried to form coherent thoughts and all her mind could think about was that his scarf had gotten a bit scratchier than it had been last time and his hair was quite soft underneath her fingernails. It had been kept about the same, but travelling must have allowed for some hairs to go further down his neck than he usually let them. Such small differences, but the profound effect was that he was indeed Mako and he was indeed standing and holding her up so that her toes were the only thing hitting the dusty ground beneath them.

"You're back," Korra mumbled into his clothing. Her cheeks turned red only a second later; inwardly she was chastising herself for not having thought of something beyond the obvious to say.

"I'm back," Mako assured, stroking her spine with one hand while still keeping her aloft with the other. Korra had to admit that she had grown unused to being caressed by someone with such a larger height disparity. She quickly put a stop to where those observations were leading her and focused on pushing herself off of the firebending boy in order to get a better look at him.

"Not that I'm not ecstatic, because I am," she began, "but why-"

"Long story," Mako interrupted, his eyes growing darker for a slight second before returning to their light bronze and giving her a wider smile. "Maybe for some other time. I want to hear about what's been going on here. Bolin just refused to talk to me until I came to see you and then you were gone so…"

Korra blushed, hoping that he hadn't been waiting too long. The trip to the Fire Nation had taken a week to go and a week to come back, leaving quite the gap. In retrospect, Korra wished she had never gone on that stupid errand. In retrospect, she wished she had never gone there in the first place. The anger that had been boiling just below the surface began to spill out of its tightly held container. Mako turned, confused, to look at Tenzin for a reason why his friend had just gone deathly silent and looked like she was ready to kick a puppy in fury. The only response he got was a shake of the head and a nod in Korra's direction. The subliminal message had been understood: if he wanted to know what was going on, he would have to ask Korra about it. That would be left for later though. It was still early in the day, not yet noon, and Mako was planning to make full use of the hours ahead to revisit some of his favorite places in Republic City.

"Earth to Korra," he joking waved a hand over her face, snapping her out of her trance only to get another bashful look from the girl. "So, I was wondering if you wanted to go into the city with me; reminisce about stuff and maybe even find a descent place to eat?"

Korra could have laughed at the way Mako raised his eyebrows to emphasize how great his proposed plan was. She settled for a smile and a nod. Her stomach twisted when she remembered that she had just come back from a rather important visit and owed Tenzin a debriefing- at least on the parts not concerning her relationship with a certain powerful political figure. The bemused chuckle he gave her stopped her midsentence as she was about to launch into a very concise retelling of 'yes, they were soon going to be in a state of war between three nations.'

"Go Korra," he prompted. "You can tell me about it later."

"Thanks Tenzin," Korra affectionately gave him a quick hug before following Mako to the ferry that would take them onto the mainland.

Mako wasn't kidding about the strolling and 'reminiscing about stuff' part of his plan for the day. They had been mulling around the city with no obvious destination in mind for at least three hours before stopping by one of the tea shops that was open into the street. The cheery disposition of the owner was also welcome and they settled onto two empty stools on the left corner of the booth. The rays beating down on them as the hour reached noon were deflected by a thin sheet of green fabric that had been stretched over the guests, creating a cool and relaxing atmosphere. The scents of the different teas being prepared and the dried plants used in them were overpowering enough to cause a few of the more allergic patrons to break out into minor sneezing fits. Korra was resting her chin on her hands, her elbows propped on the smooth wooden board that served as a sort of bar for those who preferred to enjoy their tea there. Her eyes couldn't help but travel to look over at the boy who was wearing a leisurely smile and chatting animatedly with the tea maker. His voice was deeper than Korra remembered it, but then again it had been a long time and her memory might have been a little off too. She just wished that she knew how long Mako intended to stay and what his motives were. _Where Asami was,_ she couldn't lie to herself as the paranoia of losing him again set into her stomach. She was worried, that much was obvious, but Mako seemed keen on avoiding the subject altogether. Even during their earlier walk, he had insisted on conversing only about her. He had asked about the remaining rebels in the Equalist ranks and what she had been doing lately. Korra had given vague answers, recalling her trip to the Fire Nation but skimping on any details of what she had done there. She had told him about the team falling apart, but defensively blamed it on a bad season- certainly not mentioning how close to the verge of emotional depression she had come to at his leave. The rest was just quiet enjoyment of each other's presence. Try as she might, Korra could not ignore that, despite the presence of the man who had consumed all of her attention not even a year before, she still kept looking for a pair of golden eyes whenever she looked up to peer into his bronze ones. She knew it was unfair to not tell him, but Kaji- she shuddered even thinking the name- was not a subject she felt comfortable broaching. How could she tell him without revealing everything else; her weakness and the fragile state she had been in once he left? And the last thing she wanted was to compel him into some kind of guilt feeling just to keep him around for even a few minutes longer. Which brought her right back to her initial dilemma: how long was he going to stay?

Deciding that wracking her brain in mindless circles of anxiety was unhealthy and would surely spoil the day, Korra erected a mental shield and turned to gain Mako's attention, "So, how long are you staying in Republic City?"

Mako turned to her and gave her a warm smile before opening his mouth to reply. He was cut short by their order being handed over the small counter. The cups were warm but the pottery was a poor conductor and Korra was not singed when she rested her hands on the sides of the ceramic. Mako set his down before saying, "I was actually thinking of staying for quite a while. If nothing pulls me away, probably forever."

Korra's heart made a small, violent leap into her throat and she was, once again, at a loss for what to say. She was ecstatic, that was certain, but was it really worth such a feeling. She loved that he was planning on remaining in Republic City indefinitely, yet there was always that chance that something might take him away from her again. The forgotten, or buried, feelings of that first infatuation and eventual juvenile love she had felt for him returned full force; so did the knowledge of how painful it had been when it had all been ripped apart, the feelings only intensified by her last visit to the Fire Nation and Kaji. Korra was simply too much of a jumble of different, repelling forces that she could no longer make heads or tails out of anything at that point.

"So…" she began, her voice fading away until all she could do was look at her tea and focus on the swirling of the liquid. It seemed so much nicer and far more serene than her mind. The young Avatar found herself wishing that she could make her brain into tea; then she wouldn't have to make sense of all of the stupid emotions and problems, she could just let it swim around lazily and warm her head.

"So," Mako returned, his smile never leaving his face. One of his hands came up to grasp Korra's with a gentle, warm pressure. She flinched and pulled it away, marking the contrast between his rough sunburned fingers and the delicate pale ones of another firebender who seemed to haunt her every waking moment. Mako, if he had been offended or dismayed, showed no signs of it, returning to his tea and giving Korra the space she needed. The last thing he wanted was to push her away.

Bolin had joined the merry entourage before long; Mako had somehow known where to find the earthbender as though through some kind of brotherly telepathy unknown to Korra. The trio had been wandering around for quite some time before stopping by at a secluded little park on the opposite side of a shopping district. The people seemed to be more interested in buzzing in and out of the multitude of shops offering all assortments of things to notice the small, grassy clearing on the other side. Thankfully, it afforded the perfect climate for a small picnic. Bolin had, happily, offered to buy a few food items from the complex of stores and had disappeared leaving Korra and Mako to sit on the grass and wait in silence. Korra wanted to say something, anything, only to come up blank again. She felt so frustrated that she began to chuck little rocks into the bubbling brook that ran down the length of the park. Mako, not noticing the strained expression on his friend's face, decided to join her and make a game out of it. Soon, the two were busy trying to best each other in skipping stones and attempting to get them all the way over to the other side. Mako soon had to capitulate as Korra's waterbending gave her the unfair advantage. She was glad that she hadn't forgotten how to laugh, letting out a triumphant giggle when her firebending friend flopped onto the grass and gave a disgruntled huff.

"You owe me half of whatever Bolin decided to buy you," Korra prodded him in the stomach, her finger sinking only far enough into the fabric to brush against his hard muscle underneath.

"Whatever cheater. You don't get anything unless you win through skill," Mako retorted, scrunching his face into one of fake anger. Korra couldn't hold in her amusement.

"Hey, waterbending is a skill. How is it my fault that you happen to not have it and I do? And anyway, doesn't it hurt your pride to go back on your word oh noble and honorable firebender?" the teasing ensued for another few minutes before a food-laden Bolin crossed over to them.

"Glad you ladies are enjoying yourselves," he winked at Korra and dropped all of the parcels onto his brother's chest. Mako growled and moved to strew the unwanted packages off of his body before sitting up and grabbing the nearest one. The entire meal seemed to be comprised of a few sandwiches and some drinks. Korra got a fruity one while Bolin and Mako were both gifted with green tea. The atmosphere was so well known and comfortable that Korra felt her shoulders relaxing and the tension breaking. Her eyes slid shut as she allowed herself to beam and laugh at Bolin's atrocious jokes and just become apart from the world outside of their own little bubble.

And then it was broken. Bolin looked up at Korra and said in a winded voice- having just gotten over the effects of his latest horrible pun, "So, where did you disappear to for the past two weeks huh? I heard Fire Nation so I'm guessing it was to see our friend. Get up to anything?"

Korra's eyes widened slightly and her mouth dropped from its enthusiastic grin into a thin line. She quickly looked down, seeking a place to hide within the food held in her hands, but there was hardly enough space to hold her and the ground seemed convinced that it would not swallow her up.

"I-" she started only to have her words catch in her throat. Bolin knew about her liaisons with Kaji and would probably do something drastic if she revealed what she knew about the young monarch's involvement with the onset of war. That and she would have to explain the complex turn of events to Mako; something she had no idea how he would react to.

"Bolin, leave her alone," Mako's gentle tone was her saving grace. "Sometimes you really have to stop sticking your nose into things that don't concern you."

Bolin bristled under the harsh ending remark. The good-natured boy prided himself in not getting mad quickly and without provocation, but his older brother's words elicited a foreign response in him; somewhere in between indignation and pettiness he snapped back, "What, like where you've been for all of these months and why you didn't even bother to write or contact us. And why you suddenly come crawling back with no Asami in sight and no explanation as to what happened?"

"Exactly," Mako erupted. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were drawn into a deep frown. Korra placed a hand over his wrist to keep him from doing anything he would regret. It was heeded only enough to keep him from crashing into his brother and giving him a good beating. Mako instead settled for a growled, "I don't even know why you have to be such a pest."

"You know what!?" Bolin had had enough. He was grateful that his idiot brother had decided to come home, that was undeniable, but the pigheaded firebender was not forgiven for all of the time he had vanished into thin air. Korra might have been hiding it well, but Bolin remember what it had done to her, what it had done to him. And now Mako wanted to play it off as though nothing had changed and he had only been away on a weekend getaway or something of the kind? That was bullshit. And that was exactly what he called it. "This is bullshit Mako. You can't just expect me to accept all of this blank time where I have no idea what went on. I was worried about you asshole, and the least you could do would be to tell me that you are okay and nothing bad happened to you!"

"I'm okay and nothing bad happened to me," Mako deadpanned.

Bolin let out an exasperated grunt before getting up from his seat on the meadow. "Fine," he said before turning and stalking away. "Come find me when you're ready to apologize and open yourself up a bit. If you aren't, don't bother coming after me."

The figure of the seething earthbender was soon lost amongst the crowds of passerby's and automobiles chugging along the streets. Korra was somewhat disheartened that the entire argument had been started over her even though she knew that there were underlying factors at play as well, so she settled by moving closer to Mako and crumpling the empty wrapped left from her meal into her hands and promptly lighting it on fire.

"He shouldn't have pried before you were ready," she whispered, her shoulder touching his arm. Mako could only nod and look in the direction where his brother had disappeared.

"Still," Korra continued, feeling the boy beside her stiffen as though preparing for a physical blow. "When you are ready, you are going to have to tell us something."

"I want to," Mako said. "I just-"

He went silent, unsure of his reasoning as to why he was avoiding the subject. It wasn't a particularly horrible one; rather something in the back of his mind just was not mentally fortified for it yet. He was afraid, irrational as it was, of saying it aloud because of the implications that came with that. And he could never admit it to Korra; not when he had chosen Asami over her and, cruelly, fate had come back to haunt him. There was no way to say it, no way to confess how wrong he had been in pushing away the girl now looking at him with those large blue eyes brimming with understanding and compassion. Not yet; not until he was ready; if he could ever be ready.

"You know you can trust me," Korra brought her hand to rest on his shoulder. Mako had all but forgotten how much her soothing presence calmed his hyperactive mind. "I am not going to judge you."

Later on he would not have been able to justify or quantify why he did what he did. The moment had been right; maybe it was her words and how perfect they had been; maybe it had been his soul, caught on fire by the despair of loss and the hope of finding something familiar. It was not love, or perhaps it had been. What was love anyway? Some sort of indefinable, intangible strand of cosmic energy or hormonal imbalance that slipped through ones fingers like sand granules in the wind. In the end it didn't matter. In the end Mako leaned in and drew the dark-skinned girl to him. In the end his lips parted and pressed against her, first gentle and questioning, then harder and burning with all of the intensity of his desire and need. In the end his doubt was suppressed by a false certainty that pushed him to hold onto Korra for dear life and press into her until he felt everything bad melt away. And she kissed him back, with that same hunger. Both felt it, that it had not been like the first time where Korra had been infatuated and Mako had been preoccupied. In that moment, they were seeking solace from their own pain within one another; only neither knew the other's scars; only that, for a moment, the searing within their chests was drowned and the emptiness was covered up by a thin sheet that just barely held them above the void. And for that moment, it was enough.

After a time they pulled away from each other. Korra licked her lips and tasted the saltiness of Mako's, so different from the sweetness of the 'other' firebender's'. It was a stronger taste, domineering and pronounced. Alien and yet so familiar that it lulled her into a sort of catatonic rapture. She moved to rest her shoulder against Mako's and drew him in for another soft kiss. She wanted more time feeling him. She wanted to assess the emotions that came with his touch. There was no electricity, no bursts of light or claps of thunder, but there was warmth and catharsis and cleansing. It was what she needed.

That time they stayed apart once their lips came away. Mako looked into Korra and she into him. They both could feel the gap, the 'something' that was missing, yet it was so faint that one only had to ignore it and eventually it would be plausible to figure it as a figment of the imagination.

"Hey, let's get out of here," Mako beckoned, getting to his feet and offering Korra a hand. She took it with only the hint of a blush, tilting her head down to avoid any eye contact.

Kaji was off the ship the second she felt the ramp steady itself against the edge of the wharf. She had no time to lose as it was officially dusk and Korra's ship- through careful calculation and a worrisome amount of effort on her part- had landed in approximation that morning. The firebender had put on a simplistic garb to hide her identity and draw less attention. The pants were loose but clung to her thighs with a soft beige coloration that matched the soft white trench coat that kept the cold air out. The winters in Republic City only got snow in the mid-January to early March time period so it was mostly a chill wind and minor frost clinging in the air that would cause her discomfort. However the weather was the last thing on her mind as she raced down the streets in her knee-length ember boots. The first place to check for her Avatar would have been Air Temple Island but she would have to find the ferry before being able to get to it. Using the ship that had brought her there would alert too many eyes, even if the overbearing Water Tribe witch had returned to the spirit-forsaken wastelands of the southern arctic continent. Spinning around a corner, Kaji found herself in sight of the last boat of the day. She would have to hurry, but with luck she would be able to be on it and transported to the island just as the sun's final rays left the surface of that corner of the world.

The Fire Lord found herself at a loss. She had disappeared within the crowd of evening tourists come to see the last remnant of the airbenders and their ancient culture and had been able to slip into the tower that housed the monks and their gifted compatriot. Her memory had brought her directly to Korra's bedroom, which in itself was all according to her plans. Speech and groveling all set up and ready to go, Kaji had burst into the small quarters only to be faced with an impossibility that made her stomach clench and her heart drop. The room was empty. The bed was made and had evidently not been touched for some time yet. The closet was closed; Kaji perused it to find Korra's usual getup missing which led to the assumption that Korra was either out or was in some other part of the tower. The firebender cursed under her breath. There was no way that she would be able to check the entire expanse of the building; she hadn't the time not to mention the obvious fear of being caught. She had no explanation for her presence and to confess was to give up everything- her plots, her involvement in the upcoming battle, her forbidden affections. Still, Korra was more important. Kaji searched through the expansive archive of her brain, looking for the places Korra usually visited whenever she was within the tower.

Quite a long time later- mostly due to the incessant need to keep hidden and the obnoxiously large number of monks that happened to walk in all of the passages that Kaji had to go through- the Fire Lord found herself outside of the building, slumped against an old tree trunk with her head between her knees. A growl ripped its way out of her lips; her fists moved from their clenched positions by the side of her head to hit the ground by her hips. At that point there was no use in staying. Korra had been nowhere to be found and the stars had long since come out to sparkle over the landscape. The city shined in its own celestial glow, seemingly so far away when it was only separated by a thin strip of water. Hanging her head, and finally noticing how damn exhausted all of the travelling and sneaking had made her, Kaji stood up from her forlorn position and trudged down to the seashore. The ferries had long since stopped their transits so she was more or less stuck… unless. Almost as though by magic, a small fisherman's boat came sliding into the sand with the evening surf. Kaji had to raise an eyebrow at the obscurity and sheer lack of sense that accompanied the vessel. Not one to look a gift ostrich-horse in the mouth, she shrugged and took a seat on the rough wooden bench. Two oars were conveniently located beneath the seat and, much to Kaji's increasing good fortune; the tides were calm without the presence of a breeze so setting off was not hindered by any waves. After a time- and the assurance that there were no holes, assassins, or any other form of problem- Kaji relaxed her strokes and settled into a relaxed position, allowing the tides to push her into the dockyards of the metropolis. She would have to find herself some kind of hotel or something to stay at for the duration of the evening as there was surely no one aboard the large Fire Nation ship that would take her home in the morning. Not to mention that she was not ready to give up on her initiative quite yet. A new day meant a new chance to find her elusive Avatar. Korra would have to return to the Air Temple at some point and, if Kaji was able to wake early enough, she could probably intercept the girl before Korra left again. Giving herself a nod of approval, Kaji took up the oars again and slid into an empty space next to the wooden beams that flanked the walkway onto the stone alley that greeted her.

The boat secured, Kaji had left with high hopes for the morning to come. Walking with a purpose, she didn't even notice the boy running toward her with the velocity of a komodo-rhino until he was right on top of her. As it was, the movement caught the corner of her eye and she was able to pull a swift maneuver of stepping to the forty-five and catching him in the chest in a sort of clothesline with her arm. The impact of his back to the street caused her to wince when she realized who exactly had been coming at her.

"Hello again Bolin," she offered a hand to the gasping earthbender. He took it with a slightly uncomfortable smile, groaning when he had to bend to get to his feet. "How have you been since we last saw each other?"

After their kiss in the park, Korra and Mako had kept a good distance from one another. The streets had soon gotten devoid of people as the afternoon closed into darkness with the sun's absence. Only a few drunkards and loners had been going about the walkways and the shadier crowd of people started making its appearance. As such, both had silently agreed to retire for the night. Korra had noticed, with a slight twinge of something akin to happiness, but not quite, that the last ferry had long since departed and returned from Air Temple Island. Mako, always a gentleman, had cordially offered her a place in the little apartment he and Bolin shared. Neither of them was looking forward to the awkward reunion with the earthbender. It wasn't that Mako was mad anymore and Korra definitely understood where Bolin was coming from, but the tension was not something to be looking forward to. Still, the small attic of the Pro-Bending arena was far better than the rapidly cooling exterior.

Mako couldn't help but feel relief as he set his eyes on the sparse expanse. The large windows looked out in all directions, giving the perfect view of the beauty of the lights in the city. The reflection of the large building on the murky waters was also like some kind of golden mural, moving ever so slightly with the billions of water molecules bumping together within the sheets of black liquid. The ladders leading to his and Bolin's beds were still in their same positions and, if one were to decide to move them, one would be able to see the small squares of polished wood where the dust never accumulated. The orange sofa where he had lounged and mused over long forgotten worries with the outlook of the city beside him was a little more worn, but otherwise just as he remembered. Yes, that was home. Despite the turbulences and grievances of the years, some things never really seemed to change. Perhaps it was the air that hung around with the comfort of familiarity draped over every object in a blanket of peace. Well, either way, Mako was home and he was thoroughly ready to immerse himself in its sensation.

"You hungry?" he asked Korra. Her eyes had been locked on him since the moment he set foot into the small living space. He wanted more than anything to reassure her that he was okay, but that would feel too much like lying and Mako was done with that.

"Not really," Korra mumbled. She had hoped that being with the firebender for the day would have set her mind into another topic other than Kaji; alas it seemed that even entering the building resurfaced the long passed day when they had snuck in and fought with the Raging Komodo-Rhinos. It had been that night that Bolin had become the only one, other than themselves, to know about Korra relationship with the Fire National. _Former relationship, _Korra bit out in the back of her mind. Even then, she was at war with herself over the question of whether she had overreacted. Kaji's words had hurt, but had it been enough? She had said that she loved Korra; she had also turned around and supported something that would hurt Korra in the end as well. It was all so damn frustrating and complicated and Korra felt foolish and selfish whilst also trying to convince herself that she had done the right thing. If only she knew whether to fight for the firebender or to let her be. Kaji was as much of an enigma as ever and Korra wasn't sure if any of her actions would pull the girl closer or push her away. And had she mentioned that it was damn frustrating and complicated?

So wrapped up in her own dilemmas, Korra didn't even notice the hand Mako had placed on her waist or the way he was slowly turning her to face him. The lights in the room were dull, the electricity having been lowered to conserve energy and not disturb any of the neighboring buildings- not that there were any but laws applied to everyone even giant domes buildings which were closed to the public at such a time. His lips against hers took her by surprise. At first she instinctively placed her hands against his chest as what was meant to be a push, but her brain registered that she was in no peril and her grip relaxed. Some part of her was shouting that it was wrong to go through with what was happening. She was too raw and it was unfair to Mako. The rest of her yelled for that section of her to just shut up and think of consequences later; it would have been easy to ignore that rational entity begging her to stop and think. But she was the Avatar and rarely was she allowed to take the easy choice in anything.

"Stop," Korra gasped into Mako's imploring mouth. "I- I shouldn't do this."

_And why not?_ she wondered, her body still pressed into the firebending boy's arms. Mako opened his mouth, and then closed it as nothing came out. Korra's eyes flickered to his topaz and she was astounded to find hidden moisture in them. The tears were small, not even a mist really, yet she had never seen something like that in him before.

"You're right," Mako choked out. His arms moved to release her only to be stopped as Korra grabbed his biceps and pressed herself to his chest, hearing the beating of his heart like that of a steady drum. "I was hurt by Asami and using you as a crutch isn't fair to you or me; especially not to you Korra."

Korra looked back up in surprise. She hadn't expected him to open up so soon. Maybe a few days, a week, but never this spontaneously. Still, she had a feeling that such matters were better said and heard whilst sitting on a comfortable cushion where there was no danger of their legs giving out under the pressure of the secrets confessed. Taking his warm, rough hands, she led Mako to the orange couch and plopped down before pulling him next to her. His eyes were full of fear and gratitude; quite the inexplicable combination though one Korra was familiar with. The emotions had been mirrored by her own eyes when Kaji had found her in that lonely garden all those months ago. That was all anyone ever really needed, someone to listen to them and not judge. So listen she would, and hope that it would help.

"I don't even know what happened. I thought things were going just fine," Mako began. His head leaned back to find the sofa, eyes running along the ceiling and the planks of the two walkways above them. Anywhere really, as long as he was able to avoid looking into his companion's face. He knew he would sound pathetic to Korra; bemoaning Asami when she had been the one he had chosen over the Avatar. Still, he wanted to say it, to unload all the bitterness.

"We had been travelling around the Earth Kingdom, staying in the major cities mostly. Asami was trying to get an apprenticeship with some major inventor or another and I just took the odd jobs to keep us with a roof over our heads. Six weeks ago we had just arrived at Omashu- Asami had gotten a notice from a man saying that he was interested in hiring. He was some big shot in the railroad industry or whatever and wanted help in designing sturdier frames in the tracks, I'm not really quite sure. She went on and on about it but it was way beyond me."

They both chuckled knowing how the former-heiress loved to immerse herself in her odd contraptions. Mako's tone returned to its somber lull after the moment had passed, continuing and trying to keep in control of the overflowing doubt resurfacing in him.

"About three weeks passed and she kept staying late at the office and we barely saw each other. When we did, she was always so snippy and we fought a lot. It was just… I don't even know how I didn't see it coming then. One night she came back early; I was planning to cook something special and then take her out for a walk around the city to make up for all of the spats we had gotten into. When I asked her where she wanted to go, she burst into tears and started apologizing to me. I didn't know what to do… I froze…"

Mako couldn't go on; his teeth ground together to keep from gasping in anguish. He should have done something, anything, just not what he had done. Asami was gone because he let her slip out of his fingers. He should have held her; begged her not to go; melted the door into the wall to keep her with him. But he had done nothing; he had stood like some sort of statue as the girl he had uprooted his life for disappeared into the night and vanished. He had done nothing. Mako hated that sensation, the blankness that overtook him and kept his central nervous system from reaching his peripheral nervous system. His muscles hung limp, his skeleton had felt like it was made of cartilage, as though even the slightest shift would send him to the floor. Electricity from his hand broke through the veil of the past and Mako realized that Korra had given his hands a squeeze. He almost laughed at the thought that she was the one who was helping him. If anything, Korra was the one who should have turned him away; yet there she was, holding onto him as a tether against the storm.

"She left," he finished. It was not an explanation at all but it expressed everything so much more profoundly than any other words he knew. Asami left. Asami was gone. Asami abandoned him. Korra hated the snide part of her that wanted to smile at the irony of it all. Mako was her friend, her first love, and he was not some kind of cruel joke.

"I want to tell you that it'll be okay," Korra whispered. Her voice was audible to Mako only because her head was so close to his, also resting on the back of the couch. Taking a breath she finished, "but that would be a lie. It hurts like a bitch and it really doesn't go away."

Mako chuckled. The phrase had been vulgar and concise but it pretty much summed it up. That was another feature of Korra he appreciated: she was straight and honest. Sugarcoating things was not really in her repertoire. "That's definitely not what I wanted to hear… it was what I needed to though."

"So, you decided to come back and that's it?" Korra wrapped up the end of his misfortunes.

"That's it," Mako affirmed. His chest felt lighter and he couldn't help but feel the urge to express his thanks to the girl next to him. Turning to give her a wide smile he was interrupted when her lips crashed into his. Korra's momentum as she flung herself at him caused them to flop over onto the couch. The cushions were soft under Mako's head and gave way easily for Korra's hands as they buried themselves into his hair. A moan escaped his lips without consent. The kiss was so alien to the ones he had experienced; definitely different than the first one he had shared with Korra. It was harder, more feral, and held a confidence that had never been there before.

**There is a very short, not very well described lemon. Just skip over to the next bold in order to skip it. To those who will read, I am not very good at this sort of thing and am sorry for skimping the details.**

Korra's body wrapped around Mako's so that she could deepen the kiss, opening her mouth to allow him access. She hated what Asami had done to him; hated that she had just thrown him away when he had left Korra broken for the nonbender. It was as though her heartbreak had been trivialized with that act and Korra wanted revenge. Revenge on everything and everyone. And Mako's hands running over her back just felt so good. She felt his arousal against her as she grinded her body along his. She didn't know when she had pulled his jacket and shirt off but they were gone and she was lying over a beautiful expanse of skin. Mako was tanned from his travels, though his genetic pallor still kept him fairly light. Korra sat up to examine him from a distance, her hips digging into his abdomen with a sweet pressure that set Mako's breath rate askew. He hadn't expected Korra to be that knowledgeable when it came to such intimacy. As her tongue ran over his body and her hands caressed his muscles, he couldn't help but wonder at how wrong he had been.

Not one to be outdone, Mako quickly removed Korra's top and flipped them over. The couch was small and not shaped very conveniently to accommodate that sort of thing, but they were able to keep on it with a bit of adjusting. Mako's mouth went down to cup Korra's collarbone as he undid her bra and let it drop to the ground. As he moved lower he was encouraged by the sighs and moans of pleasure that the girl underneath him was giving. His lips wrapped around her perked areola before moving his hand to caress the other one. Korra gasped as her sensitive areas ignited. Mako's touches continued to get lower until he was at her waistline. Korra almost expected the foreplay that Kaji always did, heating her up and making her wet with her lips before plunging her fingers in and bringing Korra over the edge. Mako's movements weren't even comparable. It was not that she didn't enjoy it. In fact it was pleasant. As he removed his clothing and the rest of hers and entered into her they both gave a cry, their voices rising in unison. Korra breathed in Mako's perspiration as he thrust into her, filling her completely, before pulling out and repeating the process. Still, it was nothing like the passionate, scorching nights in Kaji's embrace which set every iota of her body, mind, and spirit into an ecstasy-induced oblivion. _Shut it Korra,_ she growled, hiding it in another moan as Mako's thrusts increased and she clenched into him. Now was not the time for those thoughts. She felt her walls throb each time Mako's length moved into her, preparing for her climax that was swiftly approaching. Korra allowed herself to flood all of the worries and regrets out of her and lose herself in the raw sexual motions. She started to convulse and knew that it would be soon. Mako's mantra of saying her name let her know that he was close too. And that was when the door opened.

**Okay all good. Continue on my dear readers!**

Kaji couldn't help but think that there really was someone in the Spirit World looking after her. If she had a choice, she knew who she was hoping it would be, but it didn't matter. After running into Bolin and making up a quick story about how she was visiting the city on business and had set off to find Korra- mentioning her miserable failure at it- she had been informed that Bolin's older brother had come back and he and Korra had been spending the day together last he saw them. Kaji felt a twitch in her smile at the mention of Korra gallivanting about with someone other than her, but then she reminded herself that Mako had been Korra's friend as well. In all probability she was just overreacting and would laugh about it later. Bolin offered her a place to stay for the evening and, since she had taken a limited amount of funds with her for the journey, she took his offer. He optimistically added that, since Korra had not been in the Air Temple, she might have decided to go over to their place as well.

"She was acting kind of strange when she got back from seeing you," Bolin chatted as they walked along the well lit streets. He knew that they would be alright if they were confronted by any pickpockets or other criminals, but it was best to avoid those areas altogether.

Kaji's face fell as she remembered how hurt Korra had been when she ran out of the throne room. "It's complicated," she answered. Bolin was perceptive enough to drop the subject. It seemed like everyone around him had closed themselves off and it was starting to concern him. Kaji was someone he knew would figure it out on her own though so he was more comfortable in letting her puzzle it out for herself.

They had come up to the walkway leading up to the Pro-Bending arena and Kaji turned to give him a quizzical look. He smiled and ran a hand through the hair on the back of his head before explaining, "We live up in the building's attic. Toza let us stay up there since we were young as long as we were able to pay a little bit of rent and run errands for him. It became more permanent after we started participating in the tournaments."

Kaji didn't really know a proper response and settled for nodding and continuing along the concrete bordered by the still dark waters of the bay. They entered through a side door- something that made Kaji wonder why they had allowed her to drag them through the trouble of climbing the roof to get in that one time- and moved up several flights of stairs before Bolin stopped and placed a hand on the handle of a small door.

"It isn't much but, ladies and gentlemen," he started in a hushed voice made to mock an official announcer before a grand ball. "Fire Lord Kaji of the Fire Nation!"

His hand twisted the knob and the door fell away to reveal a small expanse. Windows surrounded most of the room, containing a small kitchen area and a table for meals and just sitting. Two ladders led up to makeshift walks leading to a hidden upper story. Those details, however, completely escaped the mortified Fire National. Kaji's eyes could only pick up the small orange couch tucked to the right side of the far end of the room; or rather, what was currently on the couch. Bolin had had his back to everything until he noticed that Kaji wasn't moving and her eyes were the size of saucers. His ears picked up the muffled moans and some mumbled words coming from behind him and, by the expression of the girl standing to his side, he had a good idea what was going on. It had only been a few seconds that they just stood as though time had stopped. Bolin was unsure as to whether he wanted to turn around, afraid of what he would find but also knowing that he had to do something. Kaji was still having a difficult time remembering how breathing worked, her gaze stuck on the scene playing out before her as though staring might snap her out of the nightmare she was in- because surely it was a nightmare as no other explanation was presentable.

Korra threw her head back as the onset of her climax hit her. She had kept her eyes open, not really for any particular reason in mind, when she saw that they were no longer alone. In fact, the last person she could have imagined to be standing in the miniscule doorway just so happened to be there. Kaji's hand was propped on the frame of the opening to the outside corridor, her right foot somewhat in front of her left in preparation of entering. Her hair was in a ponytail and her clothing was so casual that Korra would not have recognized her if it hadn't been for her eyes and the defining features of her face. As it was, the world resumed its orbit and time began to move again.

Kaji felt sick to her stomach and backed away from the room as though she had been burned. Bolin tried to reach for her but she slapped his hand away and tore down the corridor to where the stairs were. Korra screamed her name and slid out from under Mako- who had the most confounded expression on his face. She quickly put on her clothes and set out after the retreating form of the Fire Lord. Bolin, safe with the knowledge that he was not about to be faced with a naked Korra, turned to look at his brother. Mako was panting and sweaty, making no move to clothe himself as he was still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Bolin wasn't sure whether it was his place to tell him just how bad this was; deciding that it was Korra's life and it should be her lips he heard it from, Bolin crossed the small room and threw his brother's underwear to him. Mako caught the drawers and slipped them on.

"What?" he began only to be cut off by Bolin's shaking head.

Kaji felt a burning in her lungs. It wasn't the burn of fire, more like acid eating away at her heart and bronchi, travelling through her blood until her cells screamed in their final death throws. Of course she wasn't really dying, but it felt like it. The stairs blurred as her eyes brimmed with tears and the image of seeing Korra and someone who most definitely wasn't her in bed replayed itself in an endless reel behind her retina. Her foot snagged on one of the steps and she came crashing against a wall. Her shoulder took the brunt of the impact but nothing was majorly injured so she pushed herself off and continued down until there were no more steps to take. Rushing through a door, she found herself in the same room that Bolin had entered after they had come in through the side door. Suddenly Kaji was overwhelmed by a suffocating sense of claustrophobia. She had to get outside. Every fiber in her cried for a burst of cold air.

Before she could get to the opposite end of the room where the portal to her freedom lay, Kaji was pushed into a wall by a panting and very flustered Avatar. Korra panted with the exertion of chasing Kaji and her time with Mako before that. When she finally found that she had enough breath to form a coherent sentence, she realized that she had no words to say. All she could do was look into Kaji's wide eyes and grimace at the sheer terror that was reflected in their molten gold depths. Kaji's wrists were pinned to the wall above her head, Korra's body leaning into them so that Kaji would not be able to wrestle free; not that the firebender was making any indication of wanting to move. In fact, Kaji looked like she was about to faint then and there. Both girls stood in silence for what seemed to be milliseconds and eons at the same time, the paradoxes swirling around them in a vortex of vertigo.

"Korra?" Kaji's voice was hollow. She didn't know what to say; hell, she couldn't even remember the words necessary to say anything at all. All that was left in her memory was the name of the girl she loved. "Korra."

Korra's pulse raced with each enunciation of her name. Kaji's voice was so small, uncertain and questioning; asking her whether she was really there or some sort of horrible phantasm conjured to send Kaji into insanity. Korra's hands shook against Kaji's wrists, not willing to let go but wanting nothing more than to pull the firebender into an embrace. She looked so fragile then, prone against the wall like some kind of martyr. And all Korra could think to do was press her lips into the girl's, reassure her that she was there and, as improbable as it surely was, compel her to forgive Korra's transgressions.

The kiss seemed to have the opposite effect to her hopes. Kaji tasted the heavy saltiness and musk on Korra's mouth and felt her mind snap into place once more. Her eyes narrowed at the audacity of the girl to do such a thing when, not even ten minutes before, she was committing an act of infidelity. Had they been broken up with Korra's flight from the Capital? Kaji's mind screamed at her that it was no time to be debating the details. Anger bubbled up from the pit of her stomach, the center of her firebending and her chi. Her hands started to heat up innately, reading her body's signals for attack. The epinephrine levels in her blood soared and her heart pumped it into her brain at a ramming speed. It was Korra's turn to look afraid as she witnessed the change in demeanor. Her hands were getting uncomfortable against the increase temperature of Kaji's wrists and palms. She sincerely hoped that they would not combust in blue fire as she was in no position to waterbend.

"I'm sorry," she said. A small section at the back of Kaji's head told her that it really was her fault that the entire mess had occurred but it was quickly silenced by the rest of her. She was not one to appreciate betrayal and she had trusted Korra with something she had never offered to anyone before. And now all she got were two small words; as if they could make everything alright.

Kaji wanted to retort; wanted to push Korra away and storm out; wanted to evaporate the entire ocean to release the fury building within her, pressing against her skin in waves of pure power. Instead, all she could do was lock her jaw and stare at Korra, unsure as to what she was going to do. She could not deny that a part of her wanted to lash out at the girl, but she loved her and would not hurt her physically. Mentally was already out the window it seemed.

Silence enveloped them again and Kaji lost her patience. Steeling herself, she snapped, "If that is all I will be on my way."

Korra opened her mouth, desperately trying to come up with something to make the other girl stay. She searched every recess of her mind for something to say that would take back the events of the previous few minutes. She wanted to prove to Kaji that it was a mistake. She had been hurt and found a kindred spirit in Mako; he had been the first person she had held affections for; he wasn't meant to replace Kaji, it had never been about that. But it had, hadn't it? She couldn't stop the tears streaming down her cheeks even if it was pathetic and cruel.

"Stop it!" Kaji's shout shook Korra, making her cringe at the intensity of the gaze directed at her. "You don't get to cry now. You don't get to make me feel bad. You don't get to do that. Don't cry."

The last words were said in a hush and Kaji ran a hand along Korra's cheek to wipe away the small droplets of moisture. The softness of the touch contrasted the violent feelings within her, wanting to tear apart everything in sight. But it was Korra and Korra had always been untouchable. Kaji wondered at the circumstances that had led them to this. She had forgotten her mission; discarded the purpose given to her by Princess Azula. In the process of her indecision she had come to wound both herself and Korra. She should have never stepped out of the path that had been set for her. It was too late now to think of such things, that she knew. It was time for the choice and Kaji knew what it would have to be. Azula had warned her of the temptations of the heart, so much stronger than those of the flesh and Kaji should have heeded them. She would continue to follow Azula, but it was true that she was tearing Korra apart when doing it. And despite everything, Kaji really did care for her in her own twisted way. So she hardened her heart to the stone shell it had once been and resolved to leave the chapter of her life taken up by the Avatar behind.

"Let go of me Korra," she commanded. Her voice was smooth, back to the nonchalance she had become so familiar with in the past yet had never resorted to when speaking to the younger girl.

"No," Korra shook her head violently.

Kaji grimaced, her façade a forgotten shield already too chipped and battered to offer any sort of protection anymore. "You have to let go. It is obvious that we can only hurt each other if this goes on any longer. I cannot confess my love for you to anyone and thus you can never truly be mine. It was only confirmed tonight. If you are honest to yourself you would see that what you want this to be is impossible."

"No," Korra's hands finally released Kaji's wrists in order to bury themselves into the trench coat she was wearing. Kaji hesitated but figured that the small hug she gave the sobbing girl would not necessarily be a bad thing. She immediately regretted it as her hands reflexively clung to Korra's back. Kaji closed her eyes and opened her senses to the Avatar in her arms, knowing it might very well be the last time she held her like this. No, it had to be the last time. There would be no turning around at that point. Not anymore.

"I'm sorry for everything," Kaji whispered. And then, remembering something she said on that far off night when it had all begun, she repeated in a hushed voice, one used when expressing the most guarded secret, "You are deserving of the most love in this world. If you forget everything else, don't forget that."

Korra gasped at the words. Her legs gave out as Kaji pushed past her and exited from the small door leading to the cold outside where she continued to find a hotel where she could spend the night even though there was very little of it left at that point. Within the small room, Korra was found by a worried Mako and a hesitant Bolin. The earthbender boy knew of Korra's relationship with Kaji and hadn't wanted to interrupt anything. Seeing Korra kneeling on the floor with dry tracts of tears along her face made him regret his trepidation and appreciate his brother's initiative. Mako gathered Korra in his arms and proceeded to carry her up into the apartment again. She made no sound or movement even as he laid her in his bed and blew out the light before returning to the landing and moving to sit on a rickety old chair, not willing to move to the old couch after what had just transpired- even if he still wasn't quite sure exactly what that was.

In an alcove in the darkest reaches of the Spirit World, a large, pale face grinned wickedly and dozens of sharpened insect legs rubbed together in anticipation for the unfolding of fate and the prizes that awaited it at the end of the road. The Noh mask was then covered in shadow and Koh returned to his slumber with a satisfaction and excitement rarely felt by the spirit.

**P.S: And done. Hopefully I will be updating sooner than last time... this time? Whatever. I will write as soon as I can, reviews spur the creative juices! Bye for now!**

**P.S.S: To all my beautiful reviewers to whom I cannot send a PM, you are amazing and I hope that I will keep hearing from you as well. I love each and every one of you. To the people who review and I can PM, well, I try to make each response personal and if I lag behind it is due to school. I love you all! Forever! Or unless you are uncomfortable, then I will leave you alone.**


	23. Interlude

**A/N: Hello, update here. I actually have a good excuse this time. My friend in Kung Fu thought it would be funny to move the punching back making my fist collide with the wall at an alarming velocity, thus bruising my knuckles and rendering my hand useless. I wrote the chapter down but typing was nigh impossible and, since my parents think I'm straight, there was no one to type it for me. So, without further excuses, enjoy, review!**

**Disclaimer: Same as usual.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Korra's body wrapped around Mako's so that she could deepen the kiss, opening her mouth to allow him access. She hated what Asami had done to him; hated that she had just thrown him away when he had left Korra broken for the nonbender. It was as though her heartbreak had been trivialized with that act and Korra wanted revenge. Revenge on everything and everyone.

Kaji's eyes could only pick up the small orange couch tucked to the right side of the far end of the room; or rather, what was currently on the couch. Bolin had had his back to everything until he noticed that Kaji wasn't moving and her eyes were the size of saucers. His ears picked up the muffled moans and some mumbled words coming from behind him and, by the expression of the girl standing to his side, he had a good idea what was going on.

"Let go of me Korra," she commanded. Her voice was smooth, back to the nonchalance she had become so familiar with in the past yet had never resorted to when speaking to the younger girl.

"No," Korra shook her head violently.

"I'm sorry for everything," Kaji whispered. And then, remembering something she said on that far off night when it had all begun, she repeated in a hushed voice, one used when expressing the most guarded secret, "You are deserving of the most love in this world. If you forget everything else, don't forget that."

Bolin was in a very compromising position, of that he was positive. His forehead was beaded with sweat, so much so that he could feel the slight breeze freeze against his sideburns and hairline. The eyes boring into him held him fixed to the spot in the chair where he had been placed. In all honesty, it was not fair that Korra had put him in the middle of this horrible situation. He wanted to keep her secrets but it was obvious that he was not going to be allowed to leave until he spilled. By the looks on some of the faces of the people sitting around him in the small, or at least it definitely seemed smaller now, room he would have to start talking fast or be privy to the modern styles of torture no doubt used to break the hardiest criminals.

It had all happened the day after he and Mako had found Korra on the floor of the small room with Kaji nowhere to be found. The Avatar had awoken early, the sun just dawning over the eastern horizon. Bolin had not been able to get a wink of sleep so he had offered Mako his own bed since Mako's had been occupied. As such, Bolin had been the only one up when Korra had snuck down from one of the ladders and attempted to leave the premises without being noticed. Bolin, it appeared, had not been a foreseen obstacle by the quiet squeak Korra gave off when she saw him- not to mention the skidding to a halt and the arm flailing until she got into an instinctual defensive stance with her palms protecting her centerline.

"Don't tell me," he beat her to the punch. "The less I know the less they can get out of me when, and I have no doubts about this, I get strapped to a metal chair by Lin Beifong and get put through unimaginable pain for covering you."

The last bit was said with a sad smile and wink. Bolin could tell that his friend was on the verge of mental collapse which made it his honorary duty to help her in any way. Korra looked at him with a mixture of gratitude and guilt. Guilt seemed to be the overbearing theme on everyone's minds lately, Bolin sadly thought.

"Thanks Bolin," Korra whispered, going past him to reach the door. His hand on her wrist stopped her and she was forced to look into her friend's deep green eyes, almost evergreen in the faint light.

"One thing," the earthbender pulled her into a bear hug. He had no idea what was going to happen, but the future seemed anything but sunshine and daisies at the moment and he was afraid he would have to wait a long while before being able to hold his best friend like he was now. "Are you going to go after her?"

Korra stiffened, her hands clenching into fists as though she could fight against all of the regrets and uncertainty that plagued her. She really had no idea what she was going to do. She had debated running away to the North Water Tribe- find her parents or something- but that had been scrapped when she recalled that the Earth Kingdom was preparing a siege on the nation. Her thoughts had gone to scouring the city to find where the elusive Fire Nation royal had escaped to; even the shadow of a thought, a whisper of an image had been like pouring salt in deep wounds and she had given up on that notion as well. Kaji would probably not want anything to do with her at that point anyway and Korra was certain that the only person who hated her more than herself would have to be Kaji. What she had done had been reproachable, unforgiveable, incorrigible. The simplest option she had come up with had been to return to the island temple and flop onto her bed. The morning had yet to dawn so she had a chance of slipping through.

"I don't know what I'm going to do Bolin," Korra finally sighed. Bolin gave her one last squeeze before letting go and holding her at arm's length.

"Well, I guess it's for the best anyway. Just… be careful out there okay?"

"Okay," Korra's tone was anything but reassuring what with the hollowness of her eyes and the way her skin seemed to have turned a faint shade greyer. Still, it was the best that he was going to get so, with a wish of luck, Bolin let Korra go out of the door and returned to his resting position on the chair, waiting for the dawn and what lay ahead with it.

Apparently when Korra had said that she hadn't known what she was going to do, she had meant that she was going to pack up some things and fall from the face of the Earth. Not even one hour after the sun had risen fully from its watery slumber, Bolin had been practically bowled over by a frighteningly stressed out Mako asking where Korra was and saying some kind of unintelligible jargon about being the biggest moron on the planet. And while Bolin wanted to fully agree with his brother on that subject, he had become preoccupied with the sudden appearance of a very upset Tenzin, a stoic Lin, and about ten officers of the police force in his living space. After he had explained that 'no' Korra was not currently there and that 'no' he had no idea where she was, his oaf of a big brother- even though he loved the firebender dearly sometimes he just wanted to pummel him- had observed that Bolin had stayed on the landing and must have noticed her leave. Being the horrible liar that he was, Bolin had turned completely red and stuttered out some failed excuse of going to the bathroom and getting lost- to which it was pointed out that the restroom was located not even three doors down.

So that was how he had come to be sitting in a very uncomfortable chair- as it had been the one that he had been sitting on for the past few hours before hand and really wanted to get off of- being interrogated on where the M.I.A. Avatar had gone and why. Lin had bound his hands to the rickety chair where he had spent the night with thick bands of metal. It had not been tight enough to hurt but kept him completely secure to his seat. Her hands were folded over her armor and she was waiting patiently behind a fuming Tenzin who was pacing in front of the prisoner. The air nomad turned to face the earthbender and gave him a cursory stare before pacing again.

"And you say that she left without telling you why or where she was going?" he restated Bolin's former statement, one he had said repeatedly for at least an hour already.

"Yes," Bolin affirmed. He glanced over to Mako, hoping to the spirits that the firebender would not mention Kaji's appearance. Thankfully his prayers were heard and Mako, whether from pure shock at what was happening or having seen Bolin's mental signal, stayed tightlipped and to the side.

"She must have said something to you," Tenzin returned to his pacing, keeping an eye on Bolin as he waited for the answer but also feeling an inexplicable urge to walk a hole into the floor.

"She didn't tell me anything, honest," Bolin reiterated. "All she did was say goodbye and go out the door. I thought she would go back to her room in the Air Temple and she's a waterbender so I didn't really think to question it. It's not like she had to wait for the ferry in the morning."

"But why would she leave?" Tenzin mused aloud. "She left to confront Fire Lord Kaji about the Fire Nation's involvement in the hostilities between the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribes. She looked like it hadn't gone down well when she returned but," at that moment he turned to Mako who looked like he wanted to spontaneously combust or become transparent, "she looked ecstatic to go out and spend a day with you, Mako. So what happened? Korra isn't one to just up and leave for no reason."

Lin's face, which had been a blank wall throughout the monologue, turned into a more thoughtful complexion. Her hand moved to prop up her chin and her lips pursed in her usual contemplative state. She had seen only brief exchanges between the two girls, on the arrival of the, then Fire Princess, when they had been taken into custody for breaking and entering. The second had been when the party that had set out to rescue the captives from the holding cells in the Northern Water Tribe had returned. She had held her suspicions on the exact nature of the relationship between Kaji and Korra though she had attributed her conclusions to mere coincidence or unstable inference. Now though… Korra going to the Fire Nation to confront the girl herself-though not necessarily all that suspicious considering Korra's usually attitude of 'seeing for herself'-paired with the description she had garnered of the girl's return only helped to solidify her previous intuitive conjectures. They had hidden it well enough to fool Tenzin, but the man was quite blind when it came to romantic matters as Lin had experienced herself in the days of their youth. No, her more skeptical side was slowly coming to terms that she was indeed on the mark with her evaluations which only meant that Korra had not only felt betrayed by a close personal friend, but also someone dear to her heart in a romantic way.

Pushing the overwhelmed airbender out of the way, she made to stand before the bound earthbender boy who looked like he was about to imitate the skin tone of a snowman. She bent down at the waist so her eyes were looking straight into his, leaving Bolin nothing else to focus his pupils on. "Korra was affiliated with Kaji as more than just a companion wasn't she?"

Bolin's Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped. In a voice barely intelligible over his stuttering he was finally able to get out a shaky "N-n-no, w-what are y-y-you t-talking about?"

"Don't lie to me boy," Lin whispered dangerously low. The empty threats lacing her voice were nothing to be trifled with even if they were just bluffs. "I can tell with most everyone and you are not a very good liar."

Bolin was ready to be sick. On the one hand, he knew that the truth would be found eventually and he dearly wanted to keep his body intact and away from an upset Lin Beifong; on the other there was Korra kicking his ass and crushing his bones to dust in the Avatar State. Mulling it over for a good five seconds, he opened his mouth and replied in a hushed breath of air so only the metalbender would hear, "Yeah," and chose the Avatar State he would no doubt encounter at a later date.

Lin nodded and continued with her interrogation, "So she went to the Fire Nation on more than just a political visit?"

Bolin nodded weakly. He hated betraying his friend like that, Korra was going to pulverize him, but it was really the best thing he could do. Keeping her relationship with Kaji a secret was only detrimental and she was hurt, alone, with no one to help because no one knew that there was even a problem to begin with. At least this way Lin would think up of a plan… hopefully.

"What I want to know is why she decided to return. If Kaji's involvement with the Earth Kingdom upset her to such a degree, she should have run away already. She had the means. Was the motive enough for it though? It seems it wasn't upon her return here," Lin's voice died to a string of muttering as she stood from her bent position to return to her thoughtful position.

"Hrrm," Bolin cleared his throat. If he was going to be truthful, he might as well just spill it all. He was much more comfortable with just Lin as his audience however and motioned for her to come closer so he wouldn't have to out his brother to Korra's virtual 'father' and ten other strangers. Not that saying it was any less awkward when it was to the chief of the police force, but he would take what he could get.

"Kaji sort of came here last night and, well, I took her to the apartment because she wanted to find Korra and I thought that she would be here with Mako and," Bolin took a breath after the long string of events that had left his lips, "Kaji sort of saw Korra and Mako… umm, together… in… bed… and she kind of… ran away… and Korra chased her… and then we found Korra on the floor… and Kaji left at some point before that…"

Lin's eyebrows rose slightly at that. She had known Korra for only a short period compared to some but the jubilant Avatar had wormed her way into her heart. Hearing that Korra had been so hurt was enough to melt through the cold façade of the metalbender; enough for the older woman to feel an unfamiliar constriction in her throat. Whatever had brought on the events of the night before, it must have been pretty awful to cause such a lapse in judgment on Korra's part.

"So Korra left. It is understandable considering what occurred. When?" Lin asked. She knew that she would have to relay the information to Tenzin so she saw no point in keeping her voice low anymore.

"Early this morning. The sun was barely even on the horizon," Bolin answered.

"And you have no inkling as to where she might have gone?" Lin knew Bolin's response before he even had a chance to give it. The boy had not been lying about that part.

"Why did she leave?" the hysterical rhetorical questions of Tenzin reached her ears. She had been focused on the interrogation and had largely ignored him before. Now Lin felt sympathetic to the man's plight. Korra was more than just some tenant or pupil living under his roof. She was as close to the airbender as the rest of his family and he was as worried as any father would be had it been his own flesh and blood.

"Tenzin," she snapped at him. The social graces necessary for softness were still somewhat too subtle for her. The best way to break it to the man was straight and concise. "I'm going to tell you something and you are going to promise me that you will not freak out. Deal?"

It was a command if there had ever been one. The airbending master had frozen mid-pace and was looking at her like some lost child, eyes large and mouth slightly open. It took a second but his brain kicked in and he straightened his back into a formal stance. His features looked slightly frightened, as though not completely sure that he was ready to hear what it was she had to say, but determined. His head dipped in a slow nod before he turned to face her completely.

"Korra and Kaji were having a love affair," Lin's subconscious wondered whether she might have put it some way that didn't sound like a scandalous confession on some soap opera but it had been said and the damage done. Mako and Tenzin wore expressions that, had it not been such a dire situation, would have been described as beyond comical. Both men were gaping at the policewoman as though she had just gone completely insane or they had lost their auditory faculties.

"She was having what?" they both said in perfect unison. Bolin's shoulders stiffened behind the back of the metalbender. Mako's disbelief was evident in his eyes before a cold sense of understanding and dread washed over him. He vaguely remembered the girl standing in the doorway the split second before she was gone and Korra was racing after her. Tenzin recalled all of the instances where the two girls would run off together somewhere and didn't know whether he should string up the firebender or thank her for returning a smile to his adoptive daughter's face. The former seemed more applicable in the present instance when he thought about the fact that Kaji was the reason Korra had left him… again.

"Korra was together with Kaji," that time it was Bolin saying it. His tone was far less assertive than Lin's as he said it. Two heads snapped to him, grey and bronze eyes boring down on his own green.

"You knew?" Mako was the first to speak. "You knew and you didn't tell me."

The firebender's mind was telling him that he had no one to blame but himself. He had been wounded by Asami's obvious discard of his feelings and sought a refuge in someone familiar, that someone being Korra. It had been wrong even without her involvement with someone else. Had he known though, perhaps he wouldn't have done it. Mako felt shame burn through his veins. He hung his head in defeat, hating himself and the small hope that Korra would one day be able to forgive him for his transgressions.

Tenzin felt really feint all of a sudden. The earthbender had known. It seemed that everyone had known but himself. Korra hadn't trusted him enough to tell him something so important. It was biting, stinging to his heart and- slightly- his pride. True, he probably would have sent a tornado plowing into the Fire Lord had he known it, but that was beside the point and something any normal airbending father would do for his daughter. It was not an excuse for her to keep it a secret from him. But Korra, together with Azula's granddaughter, that was shocking to say the least. Tenzin had always pictured himself as an open-minded individual; he was only too happy when it came to people finding what brought them happiness. And yet, he was fairly unsure as to how he was feeling about Korra being involved with that girl. If he was being honest, any girl. There was nothing wrong with it, just, it came as quite a sucker punch. And that was when he sank to the floor just as an in case his knees gave out from under him.

Lin was not done yet. She knew that, after Tenzin came to grip with the new revelations, he would be back to pacing and debating on whether it was prudent to send all of Republic City out in search of Korra. And if there was one thing Lin was positively certain of, it was that Korra needed space above anything else at the moment. Coming to stand in front of Tenzin and looking down at him with her hardest gaze, she stated, "Now, you are going to leave Korra alone. This is something she has to figure out by herself and she doesn't need the extra pressure of having to avoid search parties. Got it?" and then softer, "She'll come back to us when she is ready Tenzin. You just have to believe in her."

Kaji strode into the throne room with her head held high. Her absence had been noted by the court but, through extensive threats and bribes- more of the former than the latter if anyone was counting which she certainly was NOT- had secured that no one was made aware of her true whereabouts and purpose over the short two-week hiatus. Well, almost everyone she noted as she walked to the dais and noticed the figure hiding in the shadows cast by the light filtering past the columns through the open windows to the far side of the room. Nothing got past the person concealed in the veil of darkness it seemed. It was one of the reasons Kaji had kept her around so long, but it was also an inconvenience at times.

"You have nothing to worry about Kain," she drawled, moving to unceremoniously splay herself over the cushions of the throne. She really wanted to invest in something a bit more grand than the assortment of pillows. She was the fucking Fire Lord and even the Earth King got to have his made out of gold and jade. The least she could do was sit on something garnered with rubies and glistening with the wealth she held at her fingertips.

"Don't I," the sharp reply cut through the room in a resounding echo even though it was said at a level intensity. The chambers were not built for secrecy in particular Kaji sighed in a bemused huff. Izuru was apparently not done with her small tantrum and continued. "I have put my entire life on the line for this plan to work and I am sorry if I don't like it when you go gallivanting to Republic City after some Water Tribe whelp-"

"I do not 'gallivant,'" Kaji said touchily. Her mood was souring quickly. She had only just returned a few days prior and the last thing she wanted to have on her plate was an unnecessary argument with the Dai Li agent.

"Whatever it was you were doing, the method is not what is important here," Izuru groaned exasperatedly. "I know you were having an enjoyable little fling with the girl but if you're getting so attached that you are willing to throw away everything that we have worked for, then-"

"I am not throwing anything and I am most certainly not attached to Korra," Kaji interjected. Her anger was broiling underneath her skin though her voice was kept level by years of practice. Korra's infidelity was still an open wound and Izuru was currently digging her perfectly manicured nails in it with no reservation.

"I am starting to have my doubts," Izuru continued, unaware or not caring about how close to the edge Kaji was with every word that came from her lips. "Was she really that great of a fuck that you are willing to forsake world domination?"

The last bit was meant to be a smart-ass insult to get the Fire Lord riled up for the earthbender's amusement. What Izuru got was definitely not what she had expected. Before she had any chance of moving a finger, much less moving out of the way, she was pinned against the cool marble surface of the pillar behind her. Her wrists were held over her head in the vice grip of Kaji's right hand, razor talons buried into the tender flesh above her bones and a hard pressure cutting into her circulation. Her pulse increased exponentially at how close she was to the firebender. Kaji's eyes glistened with a feral light that- paired with the distortion of the blue flames springing to life to Izuru's left and the light coming from the outside casting shade on Kaji's face- made her seem Draconic in all sense of the word. Her blood-red lips were twisted into a slightly unhinged smirk, causing a sharp shiver to run down Izuru's spine. Kaji's left hand trailed along her captive's open collarbone, Izuru having conveniently put on a robe that showed quite a bit of skin as it dipped low over the contours of her body, before moving up along the artery on the left of Izuru's neck. The nail's graze left a slightly pink trail over the pale skin of the other girl. Izuru wanted to hold in her gasp, but it was like trying to control a tempest. Her body was on fire, unsure whether it wanted to break away or push in closer to the marvelous sensations. Kaji's hand moved to spread its fingers over the throbbing pulse, hammering under its thin sheet. Her eyes flickered down to the milky expanse before moving back to the jade eyes so full of fear and lust. Her tongue poked out of her mouth to run along her lips, tasting the flaky cinnamon of her lipstick. Izuru's pupils followed it with rapt attention, her lips inadvertently parting. Just then, Kaji drew up and crashed her lips into the earthbender's flushed ones. Her kiss was rough, nearly bruising with the force behind it. There was no love or tenderness in it, only pure unadulterated desire. Her tongue pried open Izuru's already open lips, exploring the cool expanse within without restriction. She dug her fingers into the girl's neck until she felt the wetness of ruby rivulets run along them. Izuru moaned into Kaji, her mind trying to escape the painful hold of the vice grip on her throat but also wanting so much more of the searing pressure on her lips. She couldn't contain the small whimper of disappointment when Kaji finally broke away from her. Before they were apart however, Kaji bit into her tongue hard enough to draw blood. When Izuru saw the firebender's lips painted an even darker red with her blood she knew that the only thing holding her up was Kaji's hand shackling her to the marble behind her.

"How is that for attached?" Kaji growled. She hated herself for her actions but the rage at seeing Korra with someone else was so fresh that she could almost picture tasting his blood where she tasted Izuru's and she wanted more. She wanted to make someone scream in pain and writhe under her touch.

**Lemon. You have been warned.**

Izuru did not get to reply- not that she could have as, for probably the first time in her life since the night her family was killed, she had completely lost all ability to speak. Kaji's ravenous lips were burrowing into her, her hand exploring her body from above the fabric. The feeling of silk pressing and rubbing against her sensitive spots had her growing extremely wet between her legs. She wanted to yell for Kaji to stop almost as much as she wanted to moan for her to keep going. The shame she felt was lost to the waves of eroticism rushing through every pour. Kaji's hand reached her right breast, kneading the pert nipple underneath. Izuru groaned into her mouth, lifting one of her legs up to circle around the firebender's waist and pull them flush together. Kaji moved her hips into Izuru's, causing vibrations to run through her loins. The dress was slipping off of her shoulders; the sash holding the fabric together had loosened with Kaji's movements enough for the opening above Izuru's chest to widen. Izuru wanted nothing more than to grab onto Kaji's hair or rake her hands along her back. The fact that she was still pinned in a position where she had no way of exploring the Fire Lord in return was infuriating at best. She growled and tried to push her arms away from Kaji's strong hold. The only effect was for her to get a warning bite on her bottom lip and a painful and erotic squeeze on her waist. Her hands were effectively kept above her head with nothing to do but clench with each movement that brought unimaginable seismic waves of pleasure coursing through her. As Kaji's lips left her mouth and started to trace along her jaw line, Izuru arched her back so that her head could fall back against the hard stone. Her neck was stretched out before Kaji's wandering tongue, igniting every nerve cluster along the sensitive pressure points. Kaji's teeth left myriads of purple marks along the expanse of skin, so much lighter than the skin she had come to be accustomed to. She snarled as though trying to frighten the thoughts away. Korra had cheated on her- or she had left- both of which gave her ample justification for what she was doing.

Izuru felt Kaji's grip tighten even more as she was ripped away from her support and literally swept off of her feet. Kaji had spun her around and tripped her over an outstretched foot so that she had fallen off balance. A small part of her was terrified that she held so little control in the situation she was currently in. The cognitive abilities she had regained in that second were completely blocked out as Kaji straddled her stomach. Izuru could feel Kaji's enthusiasm in the warmth that seeped through her clothes from the girl's nether regions. Her arms were still, frustratingly, pinned above her head, which gave her a spectacular view down Kaji's loose shirt. The rise and fall of her chest as she breathed laboriously made Izuru even more slick, if that was even possible at that point. Blowing caution to the wind she pulled her hands down hard enough to give her leverage to bring her mouth into contact with the shirt. She allowed her head to fall back against the floor, bringing the torn fabric down with her. Kaji's taut stomach and breasts lay expose before her, covered in gooseflesh caused by the change in temperature and elation. Kaji lowered herself so that Izuru could take her breast into her mouth. The feeling of electricity running through her was definitely one that had been sorely missed. She moaned and arched her hips to grind into the girl beneath her. Izuru reciprocated the sound against Kaji's nipple making the firebender squirm with the pleasure. Kaji's hair had long ago fallen loose of its tie and now hung around them like an ember curtain. Izuru felt Kaji's hand lessen its iron grip under the more prevalent muscular spasms running along her body. Using it to her advantage, she pulled her hands violently to her sides. Kaji caught herself from falling but was unable to keep the lock on the girl's wrists. Giving her no time to recover, the Dai Li agent flipped them over so that Kaji was lying underneath her. She wasted no time in removing the baggy pants Kaji had been wearing and used her teeth to rid her of the panties hiding the last vestige of flesh from her sight. Kaji bucked her hips into her lips as Izuru took her into her mouth. The sweetness was undeniably something she had not expected. Something more fiery, more hostile. But the juices flowing forth were as inviting as any nectar. Kaji cried out, burying her hands into Izuru's hair as she bit into her clit and inserted two fingers. It took longer than Izuru expected, given the amount of foreplay they had done, for Kaji to finally reach her climax. She more than happily rode out the girl's explosive orgasm, taking in everything that Kaji would give her.

What she did not account for was how quickly the firebender recovered. Before she could even analyze how their positions had come to be reversed, Kaji had already stripped her of her dress and plunged into her with a vicious intensity that left her crying out in both pain and want. Her hips moved with each thrust of Kaji's fingers, the girl implemented her own hips to push further into Izuru than she thought was possible. Her walls clenched with such violent force that she felt every muscle clench with her orgasm. Coming down from it left her feeling a raw, throbbing ache in ever part of her body especially her thighs and what lay between them.

**Alrighty, those who skipped can continue reading.**

Kaji lifted herself up and wiped her fingers clean on Izuru's discarded garment. Her eyes looked upon her with something like triumph and a hint of condescension. Izuru was too spent to think about it at the present. Her eyes closed but she was still able to hear the firebender say in her usual cold manner, "I will begin to send troops at your King's request. I also want negotiations for the conversion of Omashu into a Fire Nation trading station to commence. That will be all."

And then she was gone, leaving Izuru to pick herself up after a time and slip out of the palace and onto the air vessel awaiting her.

In the frozen wastelands of the Southern Water Tribe, Korra sat on Naga's back as the polar bear-dog raced over fields of snow and ice. Her eyes never left the small necklace that lay in her palm. Her fingers had long since lost their feeling and she knew that she should have been worried about that but she could not bring herself to. Her eyes had dried of all tears on the way there even though her sorrow seemed boundless. She had not known why the Southern Water Tribe had drawn her to it. In all honesty it was still somewhat of a wasteland, inhabited but poorer than the rest of the nations even after years of commerce and reparations. The people living there had been forgotten by the rest of the world eventually, happy to fall into infamy once more. Korra had thought about seeking out Katara, knowing the Master had returned a while back, but something kept her from going to the largest city of the tribe. Something kept her heading south. Or at least she thought it was south. Her sense of direction had been lost some time ago along with the ensuing numbness of her extremities. Naga whined at her, stopping in her tracks to take in the scent in the air. Her fur bristled as she caught the smell of something in the distance. It was actually starting to feel like it was a lot of 'something's, and all of them were hungry.

A low growl turned into a feral snarl as five wolf-foxes came out of the downpour of snow. The mists swirling around them kept Naga from seeing if there were any more. She barked a warning to her mistress but received nothing in return. Her instincts screamed for her to fight them off. Had Korra been at her best fighting prowess, they would have easily dealt with the scavengers. As it was, Korra was in not fit state to be in combat with anything. Taking that into consideration, Naga did the only thing her adrenaline left her with. She ran.

The wind rushed past them at alarming wails. It was as though the land itself was trying to deter their escape. Naga's paws hit the ground with an urgency that was only brought about by desperation. Still, the wolves were desperate as well and they had kept pace with her easily. What was more; the polar bear-dog had not eaten well in a few days and was starting to feel the fatigue of carrying her friend on her back in her legs. She rushed through a pile of ice, feeling the crystals sink into her fur before being blown free by the swirling forces of air currents howling around them. A snap to her left hind paw brought a sharp piercing pain that spurred her to go faster. Her tongue lolled out until it was covered in frozen ice particles and she had to retract it. She swerved to try and shake the beasts in pursuit of them to no avail. Her heart thundered in her chest, failing to keep the oxygen levels to the necessary quota for her body. Her lungs heaved as the icy air was sucked in by her nose and mouth.

A well placed bite snapped the poor animal's tendon running along the lower part of her right hind leg. Naga used the rest of her strength to skid over instead of rolling so as to not dislodge her precious cargo. Korra swayed in the saddle but thankfully kept erect and on balance. Her hand clenched around the fragile little necklace as though she could care less about her life but could not afford to lose the small piece of jewelry. In a way that was exactly how she felt.

The wolf-foxes closed in on them. Naga growled threateningly and lunged at them a few times but the pack worked well, instinctually knowing how to wear out their prey for easier feasting. Naga felt the warm blood spilling out of her leg and howled in anguish. Her cries rang out for miles around but there was no one to hear and thus they were useless to them. Her big eyes moved to take in the oncoming onslaught of feral canines. She braced herself for whatever it was that she would have to do.

The first wolf-fox pounced from behind them. It was barely even a centimeter away from the polar bear-dog's rider when a sudden violent force knocked into its chest. The rest of the pack had not noticed the unfortunate fate of their compatriot. Instead they all went in for the attack. A stick whistled in the air and struck the starved animals down with almost deft ease. After the first few went down the rest got the message and began their retreat. Korra, having been snapped out of her stupor by the near-death experience, looked around to locate her savior. To her utter disbelief, and the chagrin to a few of the laws of the universe, her eyes landed on the nearly naked form of an old, tanned man with a bushy beard reaching to his chest and a flimsy toga as his only article of clothing sitting criss-crossed on the ground with a staff across his lap.

"Hello Avatar Korra," he smiled at her in such a friendly way that seemed not at all out of place despite the fact that he should have been dying from hypothermia. "I am the Guru Pathik and I do believe that you are in dire need of my services."

**P.S: I am so late so please review and until next time. I know most of you want to murder me for what I am doing to poor Korra and Kaji but please refrain. It is appreciated.**


	24. The Siege of the North (Part I)

**A/N: Helloe there. It is me with an update fresh off of the press... or my word document rather but the former one sounds a lot more professional no? Anyway, I really have nothing to say. Life is mundane and full of nasty tests and new math teachers that aren't nearly as cool as my old one. Gah! Whatever, my problems not yours, you guys probably just want to get on with the reading.**

**Disclaimer: I own my socks (most of which unfortunately have multiple holes in them but I am to lazy to buy new ones). Unfortunately Avatar is not is my sock, nor is it a sock at all so therefore I do not own it.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"I will begin to send troops at your King's request. I also want negotiations for the conversion of Omashu into a Fire Nation trading station to commence. That will be all."

And then Kaji was gone, leaving Izuru to pick herself up after a time and slip out of the palace and onto the air vessel awaiting her.

General Hao Sung was standing at the fore of the massive ship that sat quiet and dark amidst the rolling expanse of Arctic Ocean that lay to all sides of it. His breath came out in short huffs of condensed water molecules mixed with hints of carbon dioxide. The furs overlapping to cover the bulk of his military jacket swayed in the biting chill of the night's wind. The small salt particles clung to the fabric and his tongue each time he took in a larger breath for a sigh or a yawn. It was nearing midnight, or the banality of the journey was overtaking his sense of time. Another gust of torrential gales caused his body to spasm in an attempt to regain some warmth through friction, mostly to no avail. The North was not a place he had been born for. Hao Sung had lived the majority of his life on the seashore of the southern Earth Kingdom where his mother had taken him at the tender age of ten. His parents had both been of the Fire Nation, though his bending had come from his mother and was reflective of her Earth Kingdom origins. She had fled to her parents when his father had learned of his birth; being a member of the court Hao Sung had been a liability to the man's political career and was to be disposed of post haste. That had been a long time ago though, just over thirty years next fall.

His hands gripped at the frozen railing; pretending not to feel the sting of the ice particles clawing at his skin even beneath the leather gloves. The North Water Tribe was not even a nautical league away but the ship and the armada trailing behind it had been instructed to extinguish all lights so as to creep up undetected. It was not prudent to move further until the light of morning though, what with all of the loose icebergs floating around like natural mines ready to sink even the sturdiest vessels. Even the green flags of the Earth Kingdom had been lowered so as to camouflage better with the grey expanse of water illuminated by the faint light of the moon spilling out from behind a canopy of low clouds. His eyes, green as the scales of the tropical snakes tangled in the trees of the jungles of his home region, scanned the area before returning to his clenched fists. They had been assaulting the city for a few weeks by that point and had weakened it sufficiently, in his opinion, to not need the backup that had been sent by the Fire Lord and was arriving by the hundreds every minute. Hao Sung held no love for the Fire Nation, but now he was to fight a war that would inevitably lead to its ascension to world dominating power once more. It was a conflicting thought to him; at best he tried to ignore the nagging pit in his stomach and forget about the bitterness rising in his throat. He would do it for the one person that had been able to ignite something within him since the death of his sick mother at the hands of a disease they were too poor and isolated to cure. The woman standing beside the King that fateful day when he had bowed before the man and begged for a position in the national army and been refused. She had convinced the monarch otherwise; she had promised that he would be taken care of and trained as long as he swore loyalty to her; she had been as a benevolent spirit wrapping him under her protective chi. He often liked to think of it as having been love at first sight, but he remembered the initial trepidation that came with every encounter of someone who held a high rank. Hao Sung was not one to be betrayed twice once he had learned his lesson. Still, the Dai Li leader had only shown him proof of her good will and mutual friendship. That was why he stood there now, gripping at a frozen chunk of steel and hoping that the sun would rise soon so that he could work his muscles out of their cramped state. With the sun's rise, the battle would ensue and he would repay Izuru Kain for all she had given him with her acts of kindness and compassion. With the sun's rise the North Water Tribe would tremble under the conjoined siege of the Earth Kingdom fleet and Fire Nation navy as it atoned for its sins against the ideals of world peace. With the sun's rise, they would take the capital and the Water Tribe would be theirs.

His thoughts were interrupted by a lower ranking soldier running up to him and handing over a message. The paper was difficult to maneuver as his hands were starting to feel the effects of hypothermia set in and shook with each twitch of muscle and tendon. His eyes scanned the delicate script swiftly before handing it back to the man awaiting his response and nodding in acknowledgment, dismissal, and concession. The man retreated into the darkness cast by the looming command tower of the naval vessel. Moments passed with no indication that they had gone by except the repeating intervals of the waves crashing against the side of the great battleships as though trying in vain to defend its people from the oncoming onslaught. Hao Sung began to wonder when the hell the unexpected visitor was going to show. He had been informed that the Fire Nation was sending some of its best men, but to be sending someone of that rank in the hierarchy was amazing if not a little imprudent.

"General Hao Sung I presume," a silver-tongued voice spoke from behind him. He turned and nodded before going down on one knee and bowing in deference to the person nonchalantly standing on the deck next to him. He nodded stiffly garnering a snide smirk and a sarcastic remark of, "I have heard so much of your valor."

"I am flattered to have been mentioned to one of your rank and influence, Fire Lord Kaji," he replied in a robotic monotone. The golden eyes looking down at him swirled with a light that could not have been dimmed by the deepest pit of darkness and glowed even with the absence of light caused by the new moon hanging black in the midnight sky. If Hao Sung was to guess, he would not be afraid to bet that La had hidden her face in fear of the firebender standing there in her loose fitting black pants and black military officer's jacket with spiraling golden trim and red neckline and cuffs. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun with her crown stuck tightly into it, leaving only her long bangs to fall on either side of her face and curl around her sharp chin. The devilish crimson lips were pulled into a smile that screamed her love of fighting and the adrenaline that came with defeating her opponents.

"I have heard that you have cut off the city's supply lines through explosives in the escape tunnels and the destruction of the two elevator shafts running up the glacier. It is my sincere hope that the plans I gave you were of use in the battles. The Fire Nation is shamed to not have been able to do more for such a long time, but my position is tentative at best when it comes to military ventures. You understand, yes?"

Hao Sung was unsure as to whether the Fire Lord was trying to assert her contributions to the fight that had cost him quite a few of his best soldiers or whether she was genuinely apologizing for her late entrance into the battle. He was uncertain as to the aura exhibited by the girl. She was pleasant and charming, not at all utilizing rank in anything she said, but there was an unspoken chasm between him and her; something that he felt in his bones that made him feel as insignificant in her presence as a chicken-pig standing before a dragon. His voice came out weaker than he would have liked as he let out a soft, "There is no need Your Highness."

"Well then, it is my aspiration that we will grow closer together as this venture continues forth now that I am here with my men and you with yours. It is my deepest wish to solidify peaceful and strong ties between our two nations, especially in the wake of the tragedy they have shared at the hands of our enemy."

"I-" Hao Sung found that his tongue felt somewhat leaden in his mouth but he forced the feeling down with a gulp and managed to finish his thought, "I assure you, your highness, it is a wish that is within us all."

Her smile was wider and definitely more genuine that the smirk before it, though it sent more chills down his spine than the sarcastic look had. She then turned on her heel, the long jacket swishing with the movement to lightly wrap around her hips before returning to the loose hanging position it had held originally as she walked away and boarded the massive steel fortress that was the lead ship of the Fire Nation flotilla. Hao Sung looked upon the overbearing ship with a renewed awe at the sheer bulk of the thing. It was as though they expected to ram the walls holding the Water Tribe capital and bring them down through brute strength. Somehow, it did not seem like such a far-off notion.

A sentry on the wall of the massive ice city leaned against his spear. His long-range rifle sat to the right side of his slumped form, resting against the parapet as he was, hunched and worn. Though immense efforts had been made to conceal it from the world, the North Water Tribe was in trouble. The economy that had been based mostly on trade of oil found in the depths of the arctic wastes and the chunks of ice exported for refrigeration was barely upholding the ever increasing deficit caused by rapid inflation in an attempt to keep up with the industrializing nations. Add onto that the constant small-scale raids that were bringing their resources to the brink of the abyss and you had a growing sense of mass panic that was choking the people. It was a veritable noose that tightened with each passing day and each consumed meal. Emissaries and letters had been sent to anyone who had been deemed able to help but most of the voyeurs had been returned with extensive bruising or had simply not returned at all. The messages sent through the telegraph had not garnered any reply, whether due to interception or having been discarded was anyone's guess. Even birds had been sent when things had become most desperate. The Southern Water Tribe had replied that they had no resources to send and did not wish to involve themselves in a war against both the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom's conjoined forces. Republic City's response was more difficult to interpret. One message sent assurance of support from the United Forces but, with the absence of a North Water Tribe representative and the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation councilors in a deadlock with the Air Nomad and Southern Water Tribe delegates, there had been no attempt to uphold the promise. As things were at the present, it was them alone; alone against the most powerful navy the world had ever seen and the most populous continent on the planet with seemingly infinite reserves of both men and supplies.

The sentry closed his eyes and let the smell of sea breeze fill his lungs. He was scared, they all were. They would not be able to hold out for much longer and with all escape routes from the city, even the ones held under guarded secret, either blockaded or in ruins, hope was becoming another commodity quickly drying up. _Well,_ he figured,_ there really is no use in thinking that far ahead when I could be dead by the end of tonight anyway._ He had no family so there really was no one of immediate concern other than himself at present and the plight of his fellow citizens was something he had learned to skirt whenever possible.

It was only when he reopened his eyes that his heart figuratively plummeted like a stone into the soles of his feet. Unlike the attacks of a few small, quick, and maneuverable vessels with minimal damage to the outer wall in order to weaken them through fatigue, he was now looking at a massive force of hundreds of ships. The waters were barely visible below the swaying grey masses converging on them like some spearhead, heading straight for the wall that seemed all too thin to protect them now.

His voice rang out before he blew the walrus-tusk horn he had strapped around his neck. Similar blows rang out along the expanse of the ice bulwark, alerting all soldiers to their positions and all civilians to the safety of the inner wall. The sentry took up his position as comrades took up theirs alongside him until there was a long line of waterbenders sitting back on their legs with arms raised and waiting. Together, with one sweeping motion as though they were controlled by the mind of a single entity, they swung their arms in a downward circular motion whilst digging into their hind legs for balance and support. Swinging up to complete the circle and compliment the pull motion with a push, they sent forth a barrage of icicles, some long enough to spear a man head to toe and still embed well over a foot into the ground he was standing on. Small cheers burst out from the younger recruits in the ranks as a few found their marks and five ships erupted into a raging inferno and sunk into the subzero waters underneath. The others could only see the rest of the fleet bearing down on them and noted the fact that there had been bursts of flame that had not come from the engines of the ships exploding. Their fears were only intensified at the site of the Fire Nation flag flapping high over the prows and crow's nest of the new, sleek warships among the Earth Kingdom armada. Old fears of the Hundred Years War erupted among the older, more experienced fighters. They had not forgotten the stories of their parents and grandparents of the prowess and determination displayed by the warriors of Agni.

Below the wall and the despairing people occupying it, a smug look was crossing over the face of the girl standing in front of the bridge. Kaji reveled in the feeling of accomplishment as the projectiles sent her way were futilely melted or blocked by the metalbenders that had been brought over to each Fire Nation ship that had come the previous night. There was little in the way of rock here and any was far too embedded in the ice to be useful. However, there were thousands of metal ships. The ones sinking were quickly salvaged by the earthbenders on the adjoining ships and converted into missiles or shields against the icicle torrents sent their way. Five had sunk but that was nothing and the numbers would diminish as the hours went by. The waterbenders were out of resources and fatigue would set in soon. She couldn't help but bitterly replay Izuru's arguments against her participation in the fight. She was not one to simply stand back and let others have the opportunity to befuddle her plans. Not to mention there was no action in staying in the lacquered palace with sniveling politicians. This was where she belonged. The battlefield was where her powers were not bridled for fear of hurting someone who could become useful later. Here she could unleash all of the pent up anger and hurt without consequences adverse to her purpose.

Her ship was nearing the first wall keeping the city's parameters safe. She had promised that she would be helpful as an ally to the Earth Kingdom and this was where she would make her first mark. This was where she would ensure that the Fire Nation got ample credit and ample spoils for its participation. She turned away from the panorama of glass that gave her a perfect view of the destruction raining down on the heads of her foes. Her descent was slow and, she liked to think, amply dramatic without being too flamboyant and losing taste. Each step that took her closer to the front of the ship was made with the air of a daughter of Agni. She was chosen by one of the most powerful spirits in existence. She would spread that power, held within her hands, to all of the corners of this world, even the forsaken ones in the dismal North and South Poles.

A stray ice spear, deflected by the ship to her right, sailed into her line of sight. She quickly dropped into a three-point crouch and swung her left leg into an arc as she propelled her body into a spin on the right ball of her foot with her hands. The blue inferno that consumed the water particles instantaneously vaporized them, completely forgoing the liquid phase by the sheer heat given off by her attack. She picked herself up again, happy with how much movement her attire offered to her. At first she had been unconvinced that the material that clung so closely to her shoulders and arms would conform to some of her more intricate movements, but it was proving quite adept at its task. She had finally reached the point that speared out of her ship in the shape of a roaring dragon's head, completely covered in gold-leaf. They had overtaken the rest of the fleet by a few yards, but she could see, out of the corner of her eyes as she swept her gaze from her far left to her right, that the other Fire Nation ships had taken their places at the front of the offensive strike. On each bow was another Fire National, awaiting her orders to fire. Her arm went high into the air, the black gloves covering her delicate hands from the bite of the cold swaying a little with the violent, yet fluid motion. The wall was so close now that she could almost make out the faces of the waterbenders arrayed on top of it. Her hand cut down indicating that it was time. Without stopping the hand's trajectory, Kaji shifted her feet so that her right leg was behind her left in a side-horse stance. Her other hand swept in a half-circle to join the first one by her dan tien. The electricity bristled under her fingertips and caused the hairs on her arms and neck to stand on edge with the static. Her eyes narrowed to focus on the center of the carved sigil of the North Water Tribe. It was not the perfect target and would most likely not bring the rampart down, but it was the psychological significance that she was targeting. There would be enough time after her first strike, to finish the job.

The eyes of the senior fighters facing the oncoming ships, all of Fire nation origin, widened with understanding as they beheld the choreographed stances and hand motions being performed below. A few tried to shout for the others to get down and take cover but the words were too late to leave their lips. The younger men and women only stared in shock as their enthusiasm changed to dread at the sight of the vortex of lightening coming their way. They had no time to move, no time to even scream as the storm bore down on them in less than a second. The air crackled at first, the tension built up among the polar water molecules holding the ice lattices together under their feet as the hydrogen bonds broke for the more electronegative stream of energy coming their way. Then even the covalent bonds holding the atoms together sizzled into nonexistence with the hit of the lightening strike of twenty firebenders. The wall really had no chance of recovery.

Kaji's hit took out the majority of the seal, the only part left being the small lower sweep of the circle encompassing the interior design and some bits of the wave furrows scratched with the precision of generations of skilled hands. Within mere moments it was gone as though it had never existed. The rest of the firebenders aimed lower than the one before, forming a sort of columnar gap in the large aegis. People screamed in horror as the floor disappeared beneath their feet and they plummeted to their deaths, never to be recovered for proper burials or even to be seen by the eyes of another human ever again. Those close to the large hole were left with extensive scarring and cases of blindness from the barrage. Those fortunate enough to be farther away felt the warm liquid blood pour from their broken eardrums and heard nothing but ringing in their heads as they attempted to find order and explanation from what had happened. They had held out for weeks, their predecessors had held out for decades; yet now the walls that had once been deemed nigh-impenetrable had fallen in a matter of moments. It was impossible, inconsolable, and it had occurred with not even a faint possibility of retaliation.

Kaji shifted to put her hands on the railing guarding the perimeter of the ship. Her body leaned over it like she was some overjoyed kid having finally reached a vacation spot after a long and tiring voyage. In a way, it felt like that. The waterbenders above them were still scrambling to regain their bearing whilst they were sailing right through the literal giant hole in their defenses. Water rushed in from the sea to fill the canals that fed into the inner city and the houses around it. Another few bouts of fire and lightening created an opening large enough for two ships to go in flanking each other. Her eyes never left the approaching landing where another battalion of defenders were rushing to get into five by five groups, each waving their bodies in fast gestures as they gathered the waters around them and utilized the ocean to crush the oncoming enemies. Kaji knew she had to hurry as she could feel the pull of the open sea increase tenfold and begin to overwork the engines of her ship. They only needed a few more feet before they would be in distance for her to leap out and dispatch a few waterbenders. It was becoming quite obvious that she would have to dispel those on the ground before the rest of the force would be able to enter as her ship lost the battle between the forces of nature and the will of its masters.

Looking over her shoulder she waved her hand and shouted, "Harpoons! Release the anchors!"

Following her instructions the two weights were dropped into the crystal water. Splashes that reached higher than the deck itself marked the entrance of the bulk of metal and the rattle of chains as it descended rang out in echoes, bouncing off of the massive glacial walls surrounding them in a bowl. The anchors hit bottom after a few minutes and the pressure exerted on the vessel was held at bay by the taut iron links connected to the ocean floor. Next came the harpoon guns. Two jagged spears were catapulted into the landing. One struck through a waterbender before embedding itself into the solid ice, his prone body flailing in its dying throws before convulsing into stillness.

Kaji didn't even wait for the lines to be secured or even for the reinforcements from the bowels of the ship to follow her. She backed up before taking a leap from the ship and catching the rope tied to the harpoons into her right hand. She used the momentum to swing herself into a wide arc, avoiding the water whips and daggers thrown in her direction. Her hands burned slightly with the friction from the rope as she slid down its length and landed in a roll on the frozen ground. Not waiting to regain some semblance of where she was exactly, she propelled herself on a jet of indigo fire, blasting out of the mass of waterbenders no doubt trying to encircle her. She slid to a halt about a yard away from the, now broken, ranks. Turning to face them, she couldn't hide the smile that formed due to their bewildered expressions at seeing the Fire Lord herself, facing against them. They were soon over the initial shock and began to move toward her.

At least fifteen soldiers were running at her with their hands enveloped in water. She took in a breath, filling her stomach with the heat that would soon explode out of her hands and feet. Her first attacks were fireballs hurled at random into the coalition of bodies coming at her. It was not really a precision move as much as it was for more time and to halt their progress. The waterbenders dodged gracefully, moving out of the way with a practiced ease that came with their style of fighting. Four slowed their pace and conjured up water tentacles to surround them. Another two formed spheres of the liquid before starting to shoot out ice daggers with each clockwise spin of their element. The final nine kept coming at her without restriction.

The first to reach her was a relatively lanky boy with a wolf-tail hairstyle. His fist and frozen dagger sailed over her head as she ducked out of the way. Her own fist connected with his stomach and sent his spinning into the boy behind him, both crashing to the ground winded. The next series of attacks were a combined effort from a close-range girl and one of the sphere-enclosed boys. The girl's water whip was actually able to graze Kaji's shoulder, ripping the seams of her jacket and letting the cool air hit her flushed skin. The cool, even with it being exponentially more frigid there, had no effect on her now that her body was pumping blood a mile a minute. Kaji's hands spiraled in waves of fire, vaporizing the daggers and veins of water coming at her. The building frustration was evident in the eyes of her attackers as each assault was discarded and they began to get pushed back by the roaring walls of fire that were being conjured up in front of the firebending girl. Not to mention that others had come to join the fray. Kaji emulated the spherical balls of protection with her own ball of fire, bathing everything beyond it in a hazy blue mirage. It didn't help her visibility, but she had enough energy and concentrated chi to make a few miscalculated outbursts and, if they hit, then all the better. The first three streams of fire hit two of the unprotected warriors. Their bloodcurdling cries resounded as they fell to the icy ground, clutching at the burns on their faces and chests. Some tried to quell the pain with snow only to find that the fires were staunch about not being put out. The rest had frozen in fear at the fate of their compatriots, looking between the charred forms and the monstrous girl on fire that was coming ominously close to them. The small moment of hesitation was all Kaji needed to hit another three. That left only the four with the tentacles, still far enough to not be an immediate threat, and four others. Kaji decided to speed up the inevitable conclusion of this match. She broke her fireball and pushed herself into the air before flipping down to the ground. Before she reached it, she flung out a leg and a slash of pure cerulean fire careened toward the Water Tribe soldiers. One more was floored or dead; Kaji could not tell as she rushed past the body and delivered a roundhouse punch into the face of a boy holding a spear. His head was the first thing to hit the ground and he lost consciousness almost instantaneously. A dagger caught her across the cheek and she growled as her blood began to flow out. She hated facial wounds because of the inconvenience of the crimson streams marring her visage. Her next target was the closest spherical waterbender. To her dismay, even a moderately powerful punch of fire was not enough to dispel the torrential gale streaming in a circuit around the peasant. His smug look didn't help in calming her nerves either. An added complication came when another batch of waterbenders joined in on the fight. Kaji turned her attention back to the spherical assailant, gauging what the best approach would be. Her position shifted from a forward stance into a cross-stance before she spun out of it and let out another, horizontal, array of fire. Most of it was again dissipated, but the force was enough to knock the boy off kilter. She took his backpedalling to her advantage and plunged an arm and leg into the vortex of circling liquid. Her ribs felt a sharp pain as they were accosted by the lashing water pressure but it was soon over as she swept the boy's legs from under him. His blue eyes registered that he was done not even a second before her knee connected with his face and his nose broke to pierce his cranial matter. Kaji winced as her movement to keep from getting impaled on some spear or dagger caused her ribs to loudly protest. She grimaced at the thought that she had miscalculated the damage her little stunt had caused her.

Another jolt caught her in the left arm as a water whip sent her into the air before she landed in another roll. Her jacket was by then completely in tatters. One of the sleeves had actually been ripped so much that only a sliver of material held it together. She looked at it in distaste before discarding the entire thing on the floor. The cutting winds registered perfectly well that time so she brought up another wall of fire to stave off the attacks of both the natural elements and the waterbenders. By her count, she still had seven to dispatch total. Her troops were obviously preoccupied with their own fighting and she would be damned before she asked for any assistance unless her life was in serious danger of being forfeit.

"Come on Fire Lord," a jeering female octave called out from outside of her little barrier. "I thought the Fire Lord was supposed to be the toughest of the firebenders or something, but this one seems to want to hide behind her pretty little fire."

Chuckles from the others were also audible over the intense crackles and pops from the burning air around Kaji. Their taunts held little effect over her, having just taken out more than half of them while they had only managed to give her a series of scratches and a minor bruised rib. Her answer to the insults was a burst of, relatively weak in comparison to the ones she usually unleashed, lightening. The sneers immediately turned into yelps of alarm and then more groans and shrieks as the wounded fell to join the rest of their friends on the snow.

Kaji let down the wall to take in the situation after the onset of her latest attack. Two more had been dispatched and the final orb-user had fallen back to form a line with the tentacle wielders. Kaji smiled at how perfectly close they all were, sitting like a painted isle of colorful turtleducks just waiting to be toasted by her unbridled flames. Her mouth opened to let the excess fire find an outlet as she sucked in a large mouthful of oxygen. Her lungs swelled and burned with the pent up energy threatening to consume her if she did not release it. A few water whips were sent her way but they evaporated as soon as they hit her skin, hot beyond what most normal human beings, even firebenders, could take. Her legs carried her first to the right of them, and then switch to the left last minute before she made up her wall of flames and swept past them all. The tentacles fizzled out, leaving their manipulators to turn to ashes in the wake of the starved flames. The one in the sphere placed his hands over his face in an attempt to ward off the inferno only to have them and the rest of him char into a black column of ashes before blowing away in the gales surrounding the small city.

Kaji stood on slightly shaky legs as she assessed her work. Her victims were either incapacitated or had been securely sent on their way to the arms of Tui and La in the Spirit World. Her men were also just about finishing up with the measly battalions that had been sent to face them. Only about ten benders were still on their feet and they were quickly retreating to the second wall. Most of the residents of the lower sections of the capital had been evacuated during the initial stages after the primary wall had fallen. The benders aligning the main bulwark had also retreated, using designated tunnels to regroup behind the second wall as well, making sure to collapse the mountainside around the tunnels so that no one would be able to utilize them for an ambush maneuver.

Still, the day was young and they had plenty of time to form a barricade and then coalesce the remaining troops into a temporary base camp before striking out at the waterbenders. The moon was still in its weakest phase and would not offer much help to the ailing waterbenders. They would be fools to try and overtake an army of thousands through direct, frontal assault even with a full moon on their backs, especially since they were on land instead of open ocean where the tides would not be a deteriorating factor.

"Secure the lower town," she called. "Then get the rest of the men in here so that we can begin the assault on the upper divisions tomorrow. We will take the capital in stages. No use to overextend ourselves before the bulk of our forces has been organized."

"Yes My Lord," her soldiers bowed before moving to signal the ship to enter into the small dock. Another warship would flank it so that the catapults were in range of the battleground. The rest of the Earth Kingdomers and Fire Nationals would have to be brought in by boat as the landing was far too small for any of the other warships to dock there. Kaji really rather thought it quite inconvenient and bemoaned the smallness of everything having to do with the Northern Water Tribe. Just because they were situated in the middle of a glacier did not give them the excuse to not have a decent sized port. Her eyes turned away from the sea to face inward, toward the much smaller and less daunting defenses that now stood before her and Chief Satren. It was only a matter of time now.

**P.S: You guys are familiar with the usual REVIEW PLEASE! thing I usually say here but seriously REVIEW PLEASE! They are greatly appreciated, even the criticisms, and I deeply cherish them. I can't believe it but I am so close to getting more views on this story than the Twilight (I shudder whenever I open that one up) one I wrote in like, 7th grade. That is four years worth of views on a very popular book series. So big thanks to everyone reading this and the favorites and alerts make me feel faint... in a good way of course. Alright, bye to you all and I hope you have a happy February- a.k.a best month of the year because it is the birthday month of yours truly. :)**


	25. The Siege of the North (Part II)

**A/N: An update... one day after a previous update. Unheard of you say. Well believe it. You guys are that awesome. It is to commemorate the wonderful finale of my weekend. Enjoy it cause I have no idea when the next chapter will be up. :) sorry for any typos and review!**

**Disclaimer: I own only this story, but not a lot of the characters in it. Those belong to the people who own Avatar (those wonderful, wonderful people who made all of this possible). So don't sue... you will get all that I own which is exactly nothing except my I LOVE MORGAUSE pins and I will bloody fight you for those.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Kaji's hit took out the majority of the seal, the only part left being the small lower sweep of the circle encompassing the interior design and some bits of the wave furrows scratched with the precision of generations of skilled hands. Within mere moments it was gone as though it had never existed. The rest of the firebenders aimed lower than the one before, forming a sort of columnar gap in the large aegis.

Kaji stood on slightly shaky legs as she assessed her work. Her victims were either incapacitated or had been securely sent on their way to the arms of Tui and La in the Spirit World. Her men were also just about finishing up with the measly battalions that had been sent to face them. Only about ten benders were still on their feet and they were quickly retreating to the second wall.

"Secure the lower town," she called. "Then get the rest of the men in here so that we can begin the assault on the upper divisions tomorrow. We will take the capital in stages. No use to overextend ourselves before the bulk of our forces has been organized."

The North Water Tribe throne room seemed to have taken on a bluer tinge than it usually had, even though the color had always spanned the majority of the room. A thundering waterfall fell into rippling and frothing pools of water before they evened out and flowed to circumference the columns of ice that held up large, intricately carved beams depicting three phases of the moon; waxing gibbous, full, and waning gibbous. The inlet of the tumbling vortex of the element of life was flanked by two circular murals with the insignia of the Tribe cut into the painted blue glass. The beams coming into the room through the two windows were a muffled, shy tinge of forget-me-not, turning into a more somber cobalt as they moved into the interior of the room. Reaching outward, past the small streams, stood two more pillars, both much smaller in height but thicker in width, with the heads of bears carved into large circles of clear ice. The awe inspiring architectural wonders stood unobserved and largely ignored by the procession of people currently occupying the room. Had the energy in the room been diagnosable, it would have come off as putrid with panic. Most of the crowd remained close to the interior wall of the building, fearful of looking out of the windows lining the other side, projecting the perfect view of the expanse of military tents that colored the lower ring of the city vermillion and emerald. Closer, they would have been able to watch the winding line of refugees coming into the inner sanctum of the royal palace. It was a small comfort, almost non-existent in the wake of the fall of the external gate, but having two walls between the residents of the Northern Water Tribe was definitely more comforting than only one. As soon as the line reached a certain point in its journey into the citadel, the guards would leave their positions and return to fortify the second barricade. A few brave souls among the congregation of politicians, generals, and nobles dared to glance through the arches and out into the expanse of white below. They quickly turned away as the sights overwhelmed them and their nerves could not uphold their eyes.

Nearest to the window stood an aging man, the only man who had not taken his gaze from the downtrodden citizens climbing to 'safety' and the overbearing forces of soldiers that were all ready for a fight. Satren had been sixty years of age only a month ago. Now he felt like he was being crushed under the pressure of a century of misfortunes. His city was dying, slowly like a diseased animal struggling and bitterly clinging to its finally gasps of life. There was no more food left for them all, only enough to keep the troops nourished for another few weeks- though he doubted they would last that long- and his secret mercantile routes had been discovered and blockaded by the enemy. He could only fathom a guess as to how they had come to be in the hands of the Earth Kingdom general who had headed off the siege. The tunnels had been their lifeline, now having been severed and leaving them to slowly bleed and grow thin from hunger and worry. The frontal attack had come as a near consolation; with the fall of the palace, the people would be afforded the concessions of food and oil to keep warm during the nights. Satren inwardly grimaced at how low his spirits had fallen; to be thinking of defeat as a blessing instead of the crushing blow it really was.

"What are we going to do Chief?" one of his advisors came up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Maybe at one time it would have been a comforting gesture, but now it was only an empty and wasted effort. They would need a miracle to get out of this one.

"Hold out as long as we can and pray to Tui and La that someone comes to their senses out there and comes to our aide," Satren replied gravely. The only sliver of victory available to them now was international interference on their behalf.

"How our ancestors held off these hordes, I cannot imagine," the man beside him remarked. It had meant to be a joke but quickly converted into a wistful, disheartened observation.

"They were faced with only the Fire Nation which was divided in a war on two fronts. Here, it is a joint invasion between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. They do not have to send supplies from the other end of the world and their force is greater by at least a factor of two if not more," Satren replied without even really thinking about the rhetorical nature of the statement his comrade had made. It was a simple list of facts that spoke clearly of how dire the whole thing was.

"And they had the Avatar."

Satren turned to look at his advisor, Makari he noted, with a bewildered look at the venom with which the title had been stated. Wherever Avatar Korra was, she must have had ample reason to have remained quiet up to that point. He had to believe that they had not been abandoned; not now, not yet. He had to keep that small flicker of hope within him lest he fall apart like the rest of his council, wailing and moaning in the background.

"Avatar Korra must have a motive in her absence," he said aloud. The huff that was Makari's response showed how unconvincing he sounded, both to himself and the other man.

"Either she has forsaken us like the rest of them in that infernal city or she is being held there by their political shackles. The Avatar is Tenzin's pet, Satren, and he is an extension of that council. No matter how noble the airbender is, neither he nor the girl will act without the approval of the majority and two of the four are the ones who are fighting us!"

"What do want of me?!" Satren finally bellowed. Silence immediately overtook the room as all heads turned to look at them. Satren's brows were furrowed, his teeth clamped together so hard that a metallic taste filled his mouth, and he looked for all intents and purposes like a wolf-fox ready to strike.

"I don't know Satren," Makari hung his head. They were all tense, liable to break and lash out any second.

"Father?" Satren turned to see his son, Prince Yun, making his way through the crowds of people. His son had taken to the battlefield with no lack of trepidation- Satren always having known him as more of an artist than a fighter- but the boy had soon proven himself in the face of overwhelming odds. The Chief rushed to embrace his son, glad beyond measure that he had not perished on the wall like so many of their warriors.

"Yun, you are unhurt?" Satren pressed a kiss to the boy's forehead, noting how warm it was. They all seemed to be feeling feverish with the waning food quantities allotted to them. Still, the Prince looked no worse for wear than the other soldiers and they were the ones best fed.

"I am fine Father," Yun reassured. His clear cyan eyes were strikingly light in comparison to the glassy and disheartened hues of the other residents.

"Chief Satren," another voice, deep and strong, came from behind the reunited royal family. A bulky man whose skin was somewhat darker than the rest of the tribesmen stepped forth from the crowd. He stood a good three feet above the tallest person there and his arms and chest bulged with tight muscles ready to be utilized for melee attacks and physical barrages. A long scar ran over his chest, starting just above his sturdy chin and going down the pectorals to taper off by his left hip. Dark hair, hung loosely over his face except where it was tied into four small braids held together by beads of varying shades of blue. His piercing eyes matched the dark indigo of his clothing, loose fitting pants and a sleeveless jacket that was completely unbuttoned and did rather little to cover anything really.

"General Khan," Satren greeted the only reason they had held on for as long as they had. "I would ask if you had any good news for me but," he indicated to the windows and what lay beyond, "I can see well enough that there would be nothing to say."

"Sir, with supplies getting to be so limited, I do not need to express how much we need to obtain some sort of food source and our fuel supply is critically low," Khan moved closer so that he would not be heard whilst addressing his chief. "As such, I have a proposition to make to you."

"Go on then," Satren nodded. He was ready to implement any kind of strategy, no matter how far-fetched.

"Let me take a small force through one of the tunnels. I know they are all collapsed or guarded, but I believe that, with a few well-trained waterbenders, we might be able to cut out an alternative route out of the glacier. From there, we can go to the surrounding areas, ask for assistance and support."

Satren stayed silent, mulling over the course of action. It was a risky venture, that was true, but there was really no time for caution anymore. There was also another, more pressing problem which he voiced, despite the urge to simply wave the request forward in order to do something, anything, that might break the siege, "Where will you go though. The outlying villages that are close enough for immediate relief have been taken by Earth Kingdom soldiers. No help will come from them."

"I plan to go further to the north Chief," Khan replied steadily. "I have sent out encoded messages that have been returned to me with assurance that there is food and fuel to be had in the villages of the northernmost ring. The Earth Kingdom soldiers have not been able to bring their war machines that far due to the torrential weather."

"Who would you take with you? How long do you estimate to be gone?" Satren felt a familiar, and consoling, sensation spread through his worn limbs. It was the golden aura of life returning to him. The inner arctic rings were not the most convenient location to become dependent on, but it was true that they would be sheltered from the heavy metal infantry of the nations overtaking them. If they could create a network with the outside, they had a shot at regaining some supplies and perhaps creating an escape route for some of the citizens to relieve the pressure put on the remaining stores within the capital. The vast expanse of land would make it difficult to patrol, not matter how many men were sent to watch the borders.

"I was going to request for a group of five men. We need to be quick and unnoticeable. Of the five, I was also hoping that you would grant me your son. He has shown his prowess in battle and is adept at hunting and stealth. The others have also been selected and will be brought forth shortly."

Satren looked back at Yun who had turned his head down so his long hair hid his face. The boyish features still held to his face even in the wake of how quickly he had been forced to grow up. On the one hand, he held great trepidations about having his son undertake something so risky and fraught with obstacles; on the other, it was no less dangerous than staying would be, perhaps even less so if the second barrier were to fall. In the end, his son would have more of a chance of surviving this if he was on the outside of this war. Nodding his consent, Satren left Khan and Yun to go and gather the men they needed for their expedition. His last gift to the boy was a knife that had been given to him by his own father when he had come of age. Yun gripped the hilt with a deathly grip before embracing the old man and walking away so that the tears in his eyes would not be witnessed by anyone other than himself and his commanding officer.

The sun had set far to the south of them. Days were shorter up here especially now, even though they had begun to grow longer with the departure of winter. Out in the fields of grey snow, left dull without the illumination of the moon, hundreds of flames flickered in and out of existence from within the tents of the mass army that had congregated on the steps of the lower town. The huts had also been ransacked and converted into living spaces for the soldiers in order to fit as many men within the expanse as possible. A fifth of the fleet still remained out in the ocean, awaiting the need to be brought in as a reserve if the battle of the following day would need it.

Far above them, scaling the ice mountain that cupped the city like some sort of giant hand, six figures dressed in white snowsuits moved with painstaking speed to their destination. An outcropping of ice hid them from the view of the sentries that patrolled the perimeter of the glacial drop. There were a lot more of them now than there had been a few days ago, making progress all the more difficult. Still, they were able to make the journey to the small ice cavern without being detected. Once inside, the tall, burly man who was the leader did a quick role call to ensure all of his men had made it within. Khan had selected two girls and two boys aside from Yun. The girls were young and small, perfect for slipping past guards, not to mention both had excelled in waterbending instruction. The dark haired girl was called Tamao and she was a healer in addition to a good warrior. Shiruka, a petite blonde, was also somewhat versed in healing but her skill set lay in her knowledge of the landscape. She and her brother, Avir who had also joined them, had been raised in the outlying regions before they had come to the capital and offered much in the mission. The final addition was a sturdy boy, the eldest not counting Khan himself, named Keryuk. He had been brought for the extra brawn, even though it was a risk to have two big, conspicuous members on a secretive endeavor.

"Ready?" Khan knew that the only affordable answer was 'yes' and there was no turning back whether they were or not.

"Yes General," was the hushed reply.

"Let us get on with it then," Khan said before burying his hand into the solid wall of ice that marked the back of the cave. His hands liquefied the wall before pushing through it and creating a small, cylindrical dent in it. The new alcove was only a few inches deeper, but as the others joined in on the work, they were soon making their own little tunnel. Once the entire party was in and there was enough space to breathe, the two girls making up the back sealed the entrance to the little passage with a thin wall of ice. Hopefully it would be enough to conceal their escape were anyone to actually find the small cavern; camouflage being key to keeping the new route secret from the spies no doubt within the very walls of the capital.

They continued on, making the small tunnel with a painful slowness that was making everyone a little jumpy. They would hit the vein of one of the main roads out of the glacier any minute now. It was one that was being patrolled as the others had been sealed with metal. _Had it been ice or an avalanche_, Khan mused, _it would have made this a whole lot easier to accomplish. _Unfortunately, it was what it was and no amount of complaining was going to change the state of matter that barred their way.

Voices coming from ahead alerted them to the presence of the camped guards. Khan held up his hand, motioning for them to drop low and crawl forward for a view. The salt and small stones that had been placed on the pathway to prevent erosion of the ice with all of the people that had travelled through it felt smooth against their arms and legs. The voices became more pronounced as they edged onward. The glow of a fire and the smell of cooking meat wafted to tickle at their starved senses.

"Can't we just take them on and steal whatever it is they're cooking?" Keryuk's stomach growled in emphasis of the hunger they all felt gnawing at their insides.

"Silence boy," Khan snapped. "They must not know that we have gone. It would put the entire mission in jeopardy.

"Fine," Keryuk relented.

"We move into the walls like before. Be careful not to make any noise," Khan instructed before they all stuck their freezing arms into the walls of ice and pushed into the glacial mass once more.

The fire played tricks on them from behind the thick barrier of ice that separated them from the road and its occupants. At times it looked as though they were heading away from it only to find themselves suddenly closer to the campsite than before. At one point it looked as though the sentries extended for yards ahead of them when in fact it was only the strange reflection off of the concave walls. Still, they were soon able to feel the hardened walls giving way as they came out of the hole they had dug. At a certain point in the journey, Khan had directed their efforts upward in a slight slope. The opening was thus well sheltered and hidden from the eyes of most, even with the unhelpfully flat landscape around them. Looking behind them, back toward the outcropping of ice and the steep fall into the city below, they saw that an entire block of tents spread in a closed, continuous line to encompass the entire circle of ice, only stopping at the far edges that ran horizontally on either side of the small crescent indent before dropping off into the sea as well. Luckily for them, as though Tui and La were sending their blessings to the little group of hopefuls, a strong wind was blowing and clouds releasing myriads of little snowflakes covered the entire expanse of night sky.

"Alright, be careful now. We are almost out of this, but we have to keep away from the villages until we are out of the outer circle, got it?" Khan instructed.

"Yes General," was the unanimous reply.

And so, like ghosts taken into the arms of the gale, the six figures disappeared into the white wastes, ready to sacrifice everything in order to save their city, in order to save their nation. The snowfall soon had them vastly disoriented, though Khan trusted the two siblings moving on ahead to know where they were heading. None of the other five noticed when one of their numbers stopped short and froze in his tracks. Yun had been sure that he had caught movement in the corner of his eye. The landscape was hard to map out what with the waves of snow being pushed into his squinting eyes. Still, there had been a shadow, a flicker of something animate and in motion. That was when the hand clamped over his mouth and nose, pressing a cloth smelling of bitter almonds to him until he felt like he was suffocating. His eyelids started to droop and his limbs suddenly felt as though they were made of lead. Then, as he fell into the arms of whoever had come up behind him, he lost all sense of anything and watched as the white world around him morphed into blackness.

Kaji awoke to a throbbing pain in her ribs. The one thing she was sorry for when it came to choosing the Earth Kingdom as an ally over the Water Tribes was the small detail of the lack of healers. She groaned as she propped herself up on her elbows, feeling the sore muscles pulling on the tender bones in order to give her locomotion. It was definitely not going to be fun fighting when her attention would be diverted between the wound and her opponent. Taking up one of the remaining vials of the snail sludge she had purchased at the exhibition in Republic City so long ago, she tentatively rubbed the purple area with two coated fingers. The swelling of the skin went down tremendously, but it soon became clear that the stuff was meant for epidermal injuries, not deep ones. Sighing she resigned herself to having to grit her teeth and deal with the minor annoyance.

She quickly dawned on a comfortable pair of pants and a warm jacket before wrapping herself in an extra layer of furs. Fighting kept the chill out of her bones, but she wasn't fighting yet and required a little extra. The second wall stood over her tent, far enough to not be a danger through projectiles, but also close enough for her to see how sadly small it was in comparison to the one she had demolished the day before. Turning away, she went to find some breakfast before making the announcement for the start of the day's offensive strike. Hopefully, it would be the last one necessary to get her into the palace. Once she had Satren, it was only a matter of him signing the documentation and handing over his crown. _Was it even a crown,_ she let her mind wander as she tucked into a very welcome warm bowl of miso soup, _he is a chief so… what do chiefs wear? _For some odd reason, the only thing that popped into her mind was a fancy and overly colorful headdress made of the feathers of exotic birds. Perhaps if the chieftain had been from the Earth Kingdom, that would have made sense. But she expressly doubted that the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe would be caught wearing something so tropical and, really, so ridiculous.

Realizing that it was time to rally the troops, Kaji left the lovely, warm tent that held the 'cafeteria' and stepped into the frigid air once more. Her keen eyes caught sight of General Hao Sung quite quickly. She jogged to him before he had the chance to dip into the makeshift war room. "It's time to end this."

His expression was one of comical surprise. It was quite obvious that she had startled him, making the firebender question his battle skills if he had not sensed her approach when she had made no attempts to keep her presence a secret from him. Regaining some composure he gave her a word of affirmation before notifying the runners to alert the forces that they were to prepare for battle.

Within the hour, a swarm of earthbenders and firebenders were approaching the second gate. The earthbenders had salvaged some more iron and steel from a few ships so as to make up for the lack of other useful materials. Behind the ranks and still bobbing in the small, cramped dockyards, the two Fire Nation ships readied their catapults. The first fireballs streaked over the heads of Kaji and her men; the resounding booms made from their impact on the wall shook the earth with the force of a minor earthquake. Waterbenders scurried to fix the damage but the cracks running along the sides of the wall only grew bigger until a section came falling down. War cries erupted from both sides as the forces collided, bodies pressing against each other and blood spraying to color everything a beautiful red. Kaji made sure to stay away from the small section of wall that had fallen, waiting for her foes to come to her where she had enough space to move and weave as her fighting style required. She was disappointed on that front however, as it became clear that the tribesmen and tribeswomen were intent on staying on the other side of the gap. It was a smart tactic, thinning the numbers of invaders since they had to squeeze through the small space in fours and fives instead of en masse. _Something to remedy,_ Kaji thought as she went into her lightening stance. The current of purple electricity hit with such contusive force that those on the wall hurling ice spears into her troops were blown fully off of the structure. Her army split in two, converging on the new opening so as to surround the outnumbered waterbenders. Kaji took a running start before propelling herself onto the rampart with her blue fire. Two waterbenders came at her, one on both sides, but they were easily taken care of by a sweep of her leg and a burst of fire from her fist directly into the other one's chest. She didn't even care about their faces, genders, or ages; she just wanted to see them crumple before her. She wanted them to fall under the sheer magnitude of her power.

Below her, Kaji looked upon the writhing masses of soldiers. Some were dying, others mutilated and losing their blood through various cuts and burns. She was satisfied to find her firebenders doing well, holding their own and far better than the earthbenders who found themselves somewhat helpless with the absence of their element. Many were simply using their techniques to give their bare hands extra power in their hits or kicks. Her chosen general was also fairing well in the center of the carnage. Hao Sung wielded two long broadswords with which he sliced at his foes without restriction. Not one to be left out, Kaji hopped down from her perch and began demolishing anyone close enough to her that was dressed in blue or white. They had the waterbenders on defensive and were rapidly forcing them back to the final barrier standing between the capital and their forces. Many of the younger fighters had broken rank and started running for it, screaming when they hit the ice and were refused sanctuary for fear of letting in the invaders as well. One by one Kaji watched them fall. She was somewhat depressed that, after the first ten or so people she burned beyond recognition, no one seemed to have the gall to face her. Still, the numbers soon dwindled to none that were still standing. She had expressly ordered her men to keep the maiming and killing minimal, even though she was greatly hypocritical for it, so as to minimize the hatred toward the inevitable new regime that was about to be put into place.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand coming toward her. She quickly ducked under it and brought her hand to point at the person's throat, index finger and middle finger flowing with heated chi were she to need it. The man held up a hand in surrender, the other one carrying a rather large black bundle over his shoulder. He was at least a foot taller than she was, strong build and light, pasty skin. Definitely not Water Tribe. Black hair hung in a messy ponytail down his back, stopping just under his shoulder blades. The bundle over his arm moved violently as though whatever was in it was trying desperately to escape its confines.

"Your Highness," the man said, bending at the waste but not kneeling due to the need to restrain whatever cargo he held in his possession.

"And you are?" Kaji asked, curious as to why he was approaching her in the middle of a battle. True, it was a battle that was practically over, but still.

"I am Daresh," he replied, "and I have something that you might find useful."

"Oh," Kaji raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"Chief Satren!" a soldier burst into the throne room. Satren looked at the young man, covered in a mixture of ash, blood and sweat that hid most of his distinguishable features.

"Yes, what is it?" he had seen the second battalion fall under the unending surge of firebenders and earthbenders. The boy before him looked like he was about ready to combust with fear and fatigue, his eyes rushing over the faces in the hall as though looking upon a pandemonium whose residents were ready to tear him into pieces.

"It's you- your son," the words froze the blood running through Satren's veins. His hands shot up to grab the boy by the shoulders and shook him violently until the youth became dizzy from the movement.

"What has happened?"

"The- the Fire Lord. She… she," he gasped for air as his eyes began to roll into his head.

"Tell me boy. What has the Fire Lord done?"

"She has your son. She is willing to spare his life in exchange for your unconditional surrender."

Satren released the trembling warrior, letting him fall to his knees before fainting on the cold ice floor. The room was abuzz with conversation. The nobles shouted amongst each other about what could be done and what should be done, but the Chief heard none of it but unintelligible bickering. His eyes had closed in mental respite, lying dormant for a moment so that the information could seep into his mind completely. His son was alive, for now. The initial horror died down slightly. Of course he would surrender. What was a kingdom without his family? His wife lay dead, Yun was the only thing left to him. No walls of ice and snow, no riches hidden in the form of the Spirit Oasis would compare to his son's life. Yun was captured. That meant there would be no help from outside. No hope left. What was the use of losing any more lives when the outcome was becoming all too obvious?

Prodding the boy back into wakefulness and raising his voice so that everyone heard him, Satren commanded in a voice befit of his rank, "Tell the Fire Lord that I will meet her demands."

Kaji was thoroughly pleased with herself. The man, whatever his name had been, had been a bounty hunter. To have offered her the entirety of the Northern Water Tribe for such a measly sum of money was almost laughable. As soon as he had unveiled the tied up Prince, she had seen her victory unfold. He had been paid, then promptly dispatched after he thought he was safely on his way, so in reality she had not spent a dime for the spoils of her conquest. Now, standing before the bowed form of the Chief and his son, along with the entire nobility- if the peasants could even be called that- she was ready to finish her role here and return to a place where the temperatures were about sixty degrees warmer, at the least.

"I am glad that no more innocent blood had to be shed for this, Satren," she said as she paced along the line of prisoners. Each looked upon her with eyes brimming with fear, it was almost palpable. The only ones without a hint of that emotion were the fiery orbs of the young Prince. Soon, they too would know it personally.

"Too much killing has gone on already," Kaji continued. "I will not be the one to prolong it. Renounce your title and sign over the rights of the Northern Water Tribe and I will let you, your son, and everyone here to live."

Satren's eyes widened. He had not expected this from the girl who looked as though she would happily have disposed of all of them without even blinking. His voice caught in his throat but, with some effort, he pushed past it and answered, "I will. Just, please, my people are starving and need to keep their families warm. They have done nothing wrong."

"Of course, they will be taken care of post haste" the smile gracing the Fire Lord's face was anything but warm. It held manipulative secrets that boded well for no one on the opposite side of hers. Still, whether she was lying or not was no longer something that concerned Satren. He had lost, his city lay in tatters and he was lucky that there had really been minimal damage to the residential areas.

"Now, please sign here," the girl procured a long piece of parchment. "It forfeits the Northern Water Tribe to an appointed representative of both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation until the people are deemed able to elect a new representative. That, also, will be determined by the joint legislative bodies of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom."

Satren took the pen and paper that were offered to him. It was a clever way of phrasing their complete takeover. The people would never be allowed to elect another representative. The ruling nations would simply deem them unstable until another excuse could be found. Still, it sounded far better than 'we will be exhibiting complete control over you and your people and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.'

"Don't sign it Father!" Yun had somehow managed to spit out the gag in his mouth and was imploring him to fight on. If they were all to die, then they would; as long as they did not bow before the monster standing before them with her cold golden eyes and murderous smile.

"Silence," a man walked up from the ranks of soldiers aligning the back of the throne room and gave Yun a piston kick to the center of his chest. The clavicle snapped under the pressure and he shrieked as the sharp pain of his bone piercing his muscles and jutting out of his skin wracked his frame. "That is no way to speak to the your conq-"

"Enough," the man stepped back into his ranks, bowing for his indiscretion to his ruler. Kaji turned back to Satren and pointed to the parchment. "The faster you sign it, the faster he will get medical attention and your people will get fed."

The pen hit the crisp white sheet, scrawling a view characters that symbolized Satren's familial name and the one given to him at birth. Kaji's hand snatched it from him as soon as the pen was lifted off of the final letter. Her deft hands rolled it up with ease and tucked it in a holster on the inside of her sleeve. She then turned to the guards and pointed to the line of prisoners before ordering, "Take them to the ships and secure them in the brig. Split them so that the Chief is far from his advisors and his son is separate from them all. Half go to the Earth Kingdom, half with the Fire Nation. I want the boy. The rest you may divide to the best of your judgment. Dismissed."

With that, Kaji turned and beckoned forth her comrade in arms. General Hao Sung looked at her with uncertainty, trying to ascertain her motives for calling him. She did not answer, choosing to sweep out of the room and onto the balcony that hung above the heads of thousands of tribesmen. The citizens gazed up at her with eyes sunken and dead. They felt the shame of having failed their ancestors and allowing one of the Children of Agni to take their homeland, but it was an empty shame that was forgotten almost instantaneously when a regiment of Fire Nation soldiers began handing out loaves of bread to the rabid people. Hands closed over the simple grain product as though it was carved out of pure gold, only better because they could use it to fill their empty bodies with the nourishment they so needed. And to give food to a hungry mob garnered their rapt attention. After waiting a few moments for their inflated stomachs to fill for the first time in days, Kaji moved up and proclaimed in a clear, ringing voice, "I present to you, your temporary Magistrate, Hao Sung. His will is now law, his wish your command, until it is deemed fit to remove our presence from this nation. Until then, if you behave yourselves, you will have everything you need supplied from the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation. But to be sure, if there is word of any insurrection at all… you cannot even begin to imagine the consequences. That is all."

General, no Magistrate, Hao Sung stared at the back of the Fire Lord in complete disbelief. She had just appointed him the ruler of the Northern Water Tribe. She had given him control over the fate of all of these people that he had not even thought about before the invasion itself. Kaji herself smiled at his expression, knowing he would be an ample puppet; even if the strings were pulled indirectly, she was still that much closer to global control. She had done what the Fire Nation under Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai never could accomplish and it was sweeter than the droplets of honey that were taken from the vulture-wasps of the deserts.

Unbeknownst to the fallen capital, five figures huddled out in the snow, having escaped the invisible barrier separating them and the inner ring of the north. For the four children and their leader, there had not been a fall yet. For them, there was still time to gather the forces they needed in order to save their people. For them, it was not a time of surrender yet.

**P.S. Gasp, what will happen next? Where is Korra? Who will fall to Kaji after she goes back to the Fire Nation? All questions that will be answered a lot later on... well the Korra question is next chapter so hold on for that one. Reviews are greatly appreciated and I print them out and dance with them and throw them in the air like those weirdos do with money in the gangster movies. Yes, right. Anyway... I'm just going to leave you now and stare at my beautiful, new I LOVE MORGAUSE pins I bought off of ebay. Those of you who haven't watched Merlin should. It is amazingness on a screen. Fare thee well, fair reader.**


	26. The Guru

**A/N: Hi there, I come bearing updates! It took me forever to get this one down because I completely forgot the entire episode and had to find it on Netflix, which in itself was not that hard except for the fact that we didn't pay for the renewal of the account... oops. :) Anyhow, I was reading up on the chakras, since they completely skipped over the location of the Water Chakra. I have to say, I was not that surprised to find out where exactly it was... and promptly started dying of laughter afterwards like the immature teenager that I am. No wonder they skipped over it. I decided to humor the spirit of ATLA and also just skimp on the info but yeah, that would have been awkward for the parents of kids watching the show. Review, Enjoy, and yup, I think that's it.**

**Disclaimer: I will soon be the proud owner of a fully-powered up IPod, but other than that I own nothing special really. Especially not ALOK. **

Previously on Events Unexpected…

A stick whistled in the air and struck the starved animals down with almost deft ease. After the first few went down the rest got the message and began their retreat. Korra, having been snapped out of her stupor by the near-death experience, looked around to locate her savior. To her utter disbelief, and the chagrin of a few of the laws of the universe, her eyes landed on the nearly naked form of an old, tanned man with a bushy beard reaching to his chest and a flimsy toga as his only article of clothing sitting criss-crossed on the ground with a staff across his lap.

"Hello Avatar Korra," he smiled at her in such a friendly way that seemed not at all out of place despite the fact that he should have been dying from hypothermia. "I am the Guru Pathik and I do believe that you are in dire need of my services."

Korra had been originally wary of the underdressed man with the heavy accent and beard that seemed to be its own entity- reminding her of a puffy sheep-goat and making it extensively hard not to try and pat it. He just seemed to be such a random, unexplainable presence, not to mention the fact that she still had no idea as to how he had known where to find her or what he wanted from her. Still, curiosity won over her skittish instincts and her general low mood made her care less about the consequences of an action than could be deemed healthy. So she had followed him. Her limbs, so frozen at first that she had had to utilize the man's walking stick to prop herself up, were now a cozy warm and comfortable. Naga was recovering from her wounds- Korra felt especially guilty about not defending her friend against the rabid creatures lurking outside- in the corner of the lodging they found themselves in.

Guru Pathik had taken her into a small hut that seemed to have been conjured out of the blue, though perhaps white would have been better fitted for their surroundings. The outside had been very misleading as, once she had entered the rickety little wooden door with far too many gaps in it to possibly conserve warmth, the expansive living room opened up before her eyes. There was a comfortable looking carpet in the center of the room, orange and yellow yarn woven in a pattern of rings coalescing into a bright, sunshine center. A chair had been placed next to a one-legged round table at the far end by a door that led to another section of the establishment, probably a bedroom. The walls had been left without paint or plaster, revealing the individual boards of wood thinly nailed together to resemble makeshift walls. Really, the entire thing seemed like it was waiting for another snowflake to fall upon the twig roof before it capsized. What was even more astounding than the miracle of the building's existence was that it was hot inside. Hot enough to make Korra's lips lose their blue tinge and color their usual hue. Even with all of the gaps and fissures in the patchy craftsmanship, there was not a hint of cold seeping in from the outside environment.

So Korra had found herself being beckoned to sit on one side of the ornamental rug, finding that it was quite spongy and a perfect cushion for her weary limbs. Naga had curled herself in a protective position around her master, but soon she was shooed away by the scrawny man who then covered the gashes in the polar bear-dog's flesh with a creamy mixture that smelled faintly of eucalyptus and something else, more subtle and covered up by the pungent plant. The animal had then settled in her corner to take a much needed nap. Her stomach growled in protest but the pure thing had no energy for even lifting her head, much less biting into something.

"Would you like something to drink?" Pathik's voice came from the small kitchen area Korra hadn't seen, tucked behind a support that edged slightly out of the far left side of the shack. Korra was about to shake her head when a familiar, unpleasant burning in her throat made her realize that she was, most definitely, in need of a beverage.

"Y-yes, please," her voice cracked and strained to get even that small bit out, making her blush in shame. She was supposed to be the damn Avatar but all she seemed good at lately was running away and breaking peoples' expectations of her.

"Oh lovely! I will make something extra special then. Get your strength back, because, frankly my dear, you look like you haven't slept or eaten in days," Korra silently mused about the heavy dialect in which the stranger spoke. She had not exactly travelled all that much- in comparison to how big the world was, she had been to only a small fraction- but the enunciations of the vowels and the slight mistakes on the stresses of the consonants was completely unfamiliar to any region she could think of.

"Here you are," he handed her a half-sphere filled with light yellow sludge. If Korra had been stupid, which she was starting to worry that she in fact was becoming, she would have thought that he had somehow procured a coconut in the middle of a frozen tundra. Not wanting to be ungrateful, and only too happy to appease her body, Korra took a large swig from the little container. Nearly as quickly as she had taken it into her mouth, the liquid was expelled in a jet that splashed right over the lovely little carpet. Whatever this man was, assassin surely had to have been added to the list because that must have been an attempt at murdering her.

"Gah, what is in that?" Korra wiped at her mouth and swallowed heavily to try and get the gunk off of her taste buds. "Tastes like a blend of bananas and onions."

"That is because it _is_ a blend of bananas and onions," Pathik said with a large smile before bringing a similar cup and downing it before patting his stomach lovingly. Korra stared at him for a long moment, the perplexity clearly written all over her face, before glancing down in embarrassment at her outburst. He hadn't been obliged to offer her anything, even to have saved her for that matter, and it was immensely rude of her to have spilled the 'drink' over his furnishings. She lifted her hands and lifted the liquid with a flick of her wrists. It was harder to control fluids so thickly imbued with components other than water, but she managed to bring most of the contents back into the coconut half-shell.

"It is very good for clearing one's mind and opening up one's chakras," Pathik continued as he looked on encouragingly as the young Avatar brought the cup to her lips again. Deciding that chugging it down was the best option, Korra opened her mouth as wide as it would go and gulped down the offending concoction. The second time going down hadn't been as bad as the first. It was still completely vile, but at least she had been expecting it that time.

Once she was finished- and had gotten a look of approval from the Guru- Korra focused in on his previous statement. "Chakras?" she asked in confusion. They sounded familiar, like she had heard of them through a conversation that she had not been a part of or some sort of passing remark; nothing substantial enough to remember much on them past the name.

"Oh dear," Guru Pathik mused, his thin hand moving to twirl his long fingers through his puffy white whiskers. "It seems that I am forever doomed to meet Avatars who have not been given much instruction in the most important aspect of their training."

Korra immediately bristled at that comment. He had no knowledge of her teachers, all of whom had been exceptional people even if they had sometimes underestimated her. The criticism had been undeserved.

As though sensing the change in Korra's demeanor, Pathik raised his hands in a placating gesture and flashed another one of his blindingly white grins, "I do not mean to offend young Avatar. I just wish that Aang had mentioned me and my lessons to you in his encounters with you. He had quite the time under my instruction; that I remember all too clearly."

"I- wait," Korra backpedaled. "You knew Avatar Aang? You were the Guru he met in the Eastern Air Temple?"

Both questions received a curt nod in answer. Korra's jaw nearly fell off as she tried to make sense of how the man was still alive, much less moving and speaking as he was now. "But, that makes you over…"

"I am quite old yes," Pathik bobbed his head, his eyes closing and his mouth drooping in a mock serious frown. The image was made quite comical by the fact that it elongated his nose so much that its point was nearly hidden in the jungle of white hair coming off of his jaw line.

"H-how are you still… walking?" Korra didn't want to make it seem like she was wondering as to why the spiffy old man was not a bag of bones lying in the earth somewhere or a pile of ashes, depending on his choice of ceremony.

"Well, I do not tell most persons this secret, but it is all in this," Korra looked at where the Guru's hand stretched out and all but one finger curled into his palm. The digit sticking out was hovering right over the center of her finished coconut bowl. For a few seconds, Korra's eyes moved up and down between the empty vessel and the eccentric older man, waiting for the punch line only to find that he was being completely serious.

"Umm," was all she could think to utter. She felt it expressed her feelings of confusion without being completely silent and appearing to have completely missed the indicated response to her question; even though she had completely missed it.

"That and a lot of help from the Spirits," Pathik moved back and crossed his arms over his chest in a comfortable, lax position. "I make sure that the teachings of my people are not forgotten by passing them on to the new Avatars that cycle through and in return, I am able to manifest my body outside of the Spirit World. In a sense, I am a corporeal ghost."

"Right," Korra said in her most confident tone. She figured that straight answers were not the guy's forte, much like the spirits that he claimed had given him his powers.

"But we are not here to discuss how it is that I am here," the Guru continued, cutting her off though Korra had nothing more to say so she was rather fine with it, "we are here to help unblock your chakras and regain your true potential."

"What are you talking about?" Korra growled. "My potential is just fine thanks."

Much to her chagrin, all the Guru did was give a small chuckle and brush off her defensive remark, "in order to reestablish balance in the world, you must first establish it within yourself. I told the same thing to the Avatar before you and the Avatars before him too."

"Balance-" Korra remembered Koh's words about Kaji's role in breaking the tentative equilibrium that held their world together. His ultimatum came back to her, causing her to shudder at the thought of what bringing balance might cost her. His words came back to her clearly, as though he was whispering them into her ear with that slippery silver voice of his, dripping with ichors holding secrets and doubts.

_"Choose the girl over your duty and the world will fall into chaos."_

_"Choose your duty as Avatar and you will be hailed as a hero. Should that happen, I want you to bring the girl to me. You must swear to it, that Kaji will be mine as soon as her armies fall. That is my price Avatar Korra."_

"Avatar Korra," Pathik's own voice, soft yet firm, broke through her fear-induced haze. "I can feel the warring emotions within you. There is much turmoil in your soul, tainting and blocking your energies. I only wish to help you regain the healthy flow that you need."

Korra looked into the clear, grey irises. They held none of the ulterior motives and veiled intentions that seemed to lie beneath the surface of everyone Korra had once trusted so unconditionally. The way he looked back at her, gently holding her gaze in an attempt to console her, to affirm that he had nothing to hide and only wished to help her. She still held her fears of what was in store for her were she to accept his offer; not knowing was something she had been having trouble with lately and another uncertainty was the last thing she needed. Still, if he could show her the way to find her center again; to clear away the fog and burning self-deprecation, then there was no harm in it that she could see. If she could only have the ability to think without having her mind run in frantic circles: second-guessing her intentions, worrying about Koh and Kaji and the fate of the world, seeing Tenzin's disapproving face when she eventually returned, having to face Mako and explain that she was not in love with him anymore.

"Alright, lead on," she exhaled.

"The task you are about to undertake will not be an easy one. The enemies you will face may not be real in this world, but they will be very real to you. At times, you will be your own adversary. You must be prepared for that before proceeding forward on this path."

Korra's stomach clenched for a second, reminiscent of the first time she had gone onto the sparring field, the first time she had left home, the first time she had faced Amon, and the first kiss she had shared that had been reciprocated in the middle of the night in a country millions of leagues away. The feeling persisted, even as she gave a firm 'yes' and awaited the Guru's next instructions.

"Very well. Follow me, young Avatar, to your first challenge. We are going to gradually unblock your chakras so as to allow you to flow, to reabsorb the energies around you and harness them. Then you will be able to project into your Avatar State safely once more."

"What do you mean, 'once more'?" Korra gaped. "I can do it just fine now."

"No young Avatar," Pathik shook his head vigorously. "Now you are too vulnerable to the corruption inside of you. Do not call upon your powers until the chakras have been released, lest you endanger your body and spirit."

Visibly shaken by the information, Korra could only mechanically move her limbs to the Guru's instructions as he packed a small bag and handed over her parka to keep warm in the outside temperatures.

For her first test, Pathik had taken Korra to the west. She had been astounded that the twin-peaked charcoal mountain that rose from the barren earth had stayed hidden from sight at the onset of their journey, the flat lands usually affording a wide view of what lay on the horizon and beyond. As it happened, the outcropping of stone had all but spontaneously erupted on her periphery. Its right side was stretched into a high sweeping arc, almost as though it were trying to extend its craggily zenith to engulf the left one. In turn, the left was smaller and shrank into the right, allowing the domineering wall of rock to shade it from the midday sun floating directly above them. The mountaintops never actually met, but their proximity gave the illusion of a beautifully sculpted circle interwoven in their center. The closer Korra walked to it, the more it became obvious that the stone was actual obsidian, metamorphic rock spewed from the depths of the Earth's core in large plumes of magma millennia ago. The surface was glossy, perfectly reflecting the expanse of winter land and sky, if in a slightly eerie grey hue.

Within the coolness of its walls, lined in patterns that were so perfectly formed it was nigh impossible to imagine them coming from the random coincidence of natural phenomena, were smooth passages glistening with condensed water tendrils. No stalactites had formed because of the unmovable smooth surfaces of the carbon formations, but the liquid had left its marks in the form of small grooves that wound their way down like vines of ivy on the pillars holding up the ceiling of the interior caves. Running her finger along the side of one of the columns, Korra withdrew her hand in shock at the slight trill of pain that coursed up from her finger. Looking down at it, she saw that the edges of the formations were sharp enough to cut; the ruby droplet joined the plopping sound of the myriads of small water spheres falling from the unimaginable heights above.

Pathik took them further in, never worrying about a lack in light as the large, circular opening in the sides of the mountain served to illuminate their paths, no matter how deep they trudged or how close they were to the heart. In fact, once they came upon the very center of the volcanic elevation, Korra found that the light spilling on them came from orifices directly over their heads. The sky above was its usual placid grey-blue, though the sky shining in the mirror image on the ground before them was stormy with billowing clouds formed by the furrows made by tiny rivers of water and the shadow of the globular walls mushrooming over it.

"There are seven chakras," Guru Pathik began, settling into a meditation pose on the obsidian stone floor at the center of the cavernous natural amphitheater. "The first one we will attempt to unlock within you is Earth."

Korra made to sit across from him, observing that a perfect oval of white crystals embedded in the stone separated them. With each rush of breeze or shift of air they seemed to breathe in and out, glowing slightly whilst inhaling then dimming at each exhale.

"This chakra," her concentration on their surroundings broke and she centered her mind on the words of the Guru, "is located at the base of the spine. It is the chakra of survival. Therefore it is blocked by fear. Think of the things that cause you to feel afraid."

Korra's eyes closed and images immediately flooded her vision. Amon standing before her, his masked face peering into her soul, his eyes menacingly tearing her apart, his hand stretching out to place his thumb upon her forehead. Her lungs constricted, holding the air within them in a vice grip before the picture faded to be replaced with another. This time she was standing in the little room allotted to the Fire Ferrets where they could gather their things and prepare for the matches ahead or wind down after a particularly grueling challenge. Only, this time there had been no competition. Bolin was standing next to a past Korra, holding her shoulder supportively as his lips moved to words that were unspoken or, at least, inaudible to the Avatar's ears as she looked upon the scene with the eyes of an outsider. She didn't need to know the words though; she knew exactly what the earthbending boy was telling her. That had been the day she had heard that Mako had left them. Her knees began to shake with the familiar strain of a heavy weight settling in on her chest. The doubt that came about from not knowing whether she would see him again, the anger at not being good enough to anchor him to the city, the frightening emptiness of being alone again, everything was as vivid as if it had only been yesterday. The clarity of the image was soon lost to another flashback. Her arms hitting grass, clamped over something soft and pliable as her bodyweight landed on the prone body of another person. Her eyes widened at the sight of a face she had missed so much that it caused a suffocating pain to smother her heart. Lips, soft but cold, lifeless, pressed gently into hers, reminiscent of the uncertainty that came with opening herself up to another person again; the overwhelming possibility of being left without a tether to reality or a trace of warmth. The pressure of Kaji's lips left hers, wafting away like streams of smoke, caressing her cheeks with cool detachment. Korra turned, not wanting to lose the sensation even if it was only a lie wrapped in a memory of the girl she still felt for. What she found behind her was not the shade of the Fire Lord, but a dark mass of something else. The light steamy qualities had lost their transparency, metamorphosing into a plume of heavy grey and black masses of writhing cumulonimbus. Korra's eyes widened as scaly centipede legs ripped out of the condensed tempest. The large, insect body curled itself up before a thick tail, capped by razor sharp pincers, slapped down on the beige ground. The forced of the impact expelled the rest of the billowing currents of smoke, revealing the grotesque form of Koh. At first he appeared to be facing away from Korra, his hulking form bent over something lying by the first set of limbs not dangling in the air. At her shaky inhale, his head turned to look at her, segmented body straining to hold the position despite the tension it caused the interlocked plates of chitin. His faces were interchanging at a rate that was nearly too fast to register for Korra's retinas. She would have been happy if they had been indistinguishable as each wore a grin showing rows of jagged teeth covered in dark red liquid.

"Ah, Avatar Korra," he growled appreciatively in a hundred different voices. "I would like to thank you for upholding your end of the bargain, it was most invigorating."

Korra's face contorted in horror as his body moved to reveal what it had been that he had undoubtedly been intent in consuming. Lying in a deep pool of blood, half devoured by the voracious spirit still basking in his victory, was Kaji. Her body had been nearly ripped apart, though most of the damage was concealed by the thick black ooze now spilling out of her to eat away at the rest of the corpse. When there was only her face left, her lifeless eyes shifted over to look at the Avatar, her mouth opening in a scream for help that could not come due to her lack of a trachea and larynx. Then, the entirety of her essence was gone. A cold laugh came from behind Korra. Turning her stricken, damp eyes to face the sound, she sank to her knees under the waves of terror and sorrow. Upon Koh's massive form, contorted in an expression of insane glee, was Kaji's face, forever doomed to adorn the large centipede as one of his precious collection of facades.

"Your turn now, little Avatar," it said through Kaji's lips. The lips that had held so much love and kindness and even the hints of betrayal, turned into a ravenous demonic gateway into the Stygian blackness behind the sharp incisors lining massive black gums. Korra cried out, bringing her hands up to her face, not ready to be turned into an empty shell, condemned to the agony of eternal unrest and torment.

"Avatar Korra, the things you see are not real," sweetness and warmth seeped into Korra's clammy skin. Her mouth, which had become as dry as dust, filled with a light film of something faintly tart and faintly bitter, but also welcome. "You must calm yourself and move past these trepidations."

Korra's breathing slowed slightly, her pulse coming down from its erratic battery on her ribs. Koh's gaping mouth closed, his giant silhouette becoming lost in the light, crème vapor rising to surround the young girl still curled into her fetal position, head buried in her knees.

"Avatar Korra," Guru Pathik tried again. "I can only guide you on this journey. You must be the one who opens your chakra gates. You must be the one who breaks the hold of these negative emotions within yourself."

Korra's eyes longed to tear up, to leak the moisture necessary to expel all of the visions still playing behind her eyelids, clamped shut over her wide sapphire irises. Her eyes remained dry however hard she pressed on them to trigger the reflexive lactation of salty tears, giving nothing. The rest of her minor fears, the ones wracking her frame with tremors, came faster than the previous four. Tenzin's judging face at her naivety and weakness, Katara's disapproval were she to ever find out about Korra's feelings for the firebender that the master waterbender had never trusted from the beginning, the world's confusion and blame being poured over her as they awaited her response to the onset of war.

"You must control your thoughts. Focus on calming your breath," the words were faint now, much fainter than they had been before. "All of these problems and expectation will be dealt with in due time. You have to allow yourself the time and space to think. Not everyone is out to get you, to judge or convict you for any perceived failures. Those who you fear you have betrayed will forgive you. Those who have betrayed you are far less in number than those who stand beside you."

Korra's head slowly came out of the small cocoon she had made for herself. The voice of the man on the other side of the veil of her mind was getting stronger with each word until it seemed to echo throughout the entire expanse of seemingly limitless empty space. Her hands, clenched tightly around her withdrawn knees, loosened their grip until she was able to slide her legs out and rest her calves on the smooth surface of the floor- even though it looked no different than the rest of her mental space and she could well have been hovering over air.

"Korra, you are not alone. There are those who care for you. You are loved," Pathik finished. His eyes crinkled as the girl opened her own eyes and shook away the final fragments of her insecurity.

"Well that was harder than I thought it would be," Korra mumbled, a small smile cracking through the stiffness in her face. She hadn't felt as good as she did then for a long time. It was almost as though she was lighter, more flexible and fluid, without the restraints that had been holding her in constant captivity.

"Yes well, it is one of the most difficult tasks to overcome," Guru Pathik stood, dusting off his robes before looking at the opening in the pinnacle of the room. "You did very well though. It usually takes quite a while longer for all fears to be vanquished from one's essence."

Korra mimicked his eyes, glancing up to see that the sun was no longer above them, streaming its light from three corridors to their left. She glanced down at the oval, the only decoration in the formation, only to see the crystals shine with a fiery orange in the setting rays. An entire day spent battling her demons had left her rather famished and exhausted.

"Well, on to the next gate then," the Guru cheerily announced. Korra's shoulders slumped at the news. She had really hoped that they would have been able to take a break, or even to have left for the night. "Here, drink some onion and banana juice to replenish your energy."

Korra took the yellow concoction with hesitation, wondering how the old man had suddenly procured it and whether he might have been able to conjure something more substantial. Her stomach grumbled in apprehension as she brought the coconut to her lips before consuming the entirety of the poultice. Grimacing, she couldn't help but think, _yup, horrible as always._

"Come Avatar, we must not lose any more time."

"The second chakra is the Water Chakra," Guru Pathik informed her.

They had gone into the lower rungs of the mountain, far down underneath the outlying wastelands. Luminous bulbs of blue fungi lit their descent until even they could no longer grow and fluorescent crystals took up the empty spaces along the walls. The obsidian that far down was not nearly as smooth as its brethren rock rising above the surface. The water and wind erosion had not been as extensive in the hearth of the mountain leaving the small blemishes and ridges to keep their form. Shadows played against the corner of her vision, sometimes resembling creatures that would never have been foolish or confident enough to walk the path they held to.

After some time, they had reached an underground lake of some sort. The black waters lapped at the shoreline of small grey pebbles. The crystals along the edges of the water and hanging from the high ceiling only illuminated the surface of the colossal body. Its submerged secrets held to their mystery, not to be unveiled or disturbed for the rest of eternity as they stayed quietly just beyond the reach of any outside light.

Korra and Pathik had found an outcropping of rock that stretched out into the lake. Had someone looked at them from the side, they would have appeared to be afloat over the murky still water. Korra's eyes moved languidly over the static blanket of night around her. Her body would have been afraid of it had she seen it only a few hours before. Now, she was content in mutual seclusion from whatever lay underneath the sheath of black.

"The Water Chakra," the tanned old man continued, "is the chakra of pleasure. It is blocked by guilt. Think of all of the things you blame yourself for, every mistake that has caused pain to someone else and caused you to feel regret."

Korra immediately flashed to the night that should have never happened; her actions that had alienated both Mako and Kaji from her. Barely over a whisper, she confessed, "I betrayed the ones I loved."

"Now, you must let go of the blame. Accept the reality that these things happen and free yourself of their lingering presence."

Korra smiled sadly as the images of Kaji's eyes, full of shock and pain, faded from her mind. She would never forget, but at least she could learn to set the memories loose and forgive herself.

The next vision was one of Tenzin, probably worried sick over where she was and why she had left. The knots in her chest unfurled as they too were set adrift on the streams of energy finally flowing openly through her system. He would forgive her when she came back. She would have a lot of explaining to do, that would not change, but she would return and that would certainly be enough for the kind airbender.

The final image was of Katara. The loving waterbender who had offered Korra nothing but affection and compassion; the woman who had always been supportive of Korra and all the Avatar had given her in return had been lies and deception. She knew that she would have to tell Katara the truth about her and Kaji. If anyone had held a right to know, it was the amiable, selfless old woman.

Korra's eyes slid open to look expectantly at the Guru. "Very good. That one went quite well for you. I am glad that you were able to forgive yourself and look to the future instead of getting bogged down in past mistakes."

The next room they came into was almost a perfect replication of the underground passageways of the Fire Nation Capital. Where the black water lake had been quiet and still, the river of magma that ran through the underground chamber they had come upon was spitting and hissing showers of molten rock and fire out of its slithering mass. Korra felt the rise in temperature, but it was obvious that the room should have been much warmer than the light heat that grazed her skin. She glanced at the Guru sitting next to her on the ledge- which felt a little too narrow for her liking- and couldn't help but question how many abilities the Spirits had bestowed upon him in exchange for his wisdom.

"Let me guess," Korra started before her companion could announce the next stage to her purification. In a smartass tone she finished, "the third chakra is the Fire Chakra."

Instead of the reproachful chastisement for her behavior that Korra had expected to hear, the old man responded with an astounded and excited, "Why, yes. How perceptive of you!"

Korra raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure as to whether he was mocking her or had seriously complimented her on her mental capabilities, as though it had not been obvious from their location what element the chakra belonged to. Choosing to ignore her confusion for the time being, Korra allowed Pathik to continue in his usual dialogue.

"The third chakra, as you inferred, is the Fire Chakra. It is located in the stomach and deals with will power. Will power is blocked by shame. Picture all that has caused you to experience shame and then expel it in order to release the strength you hold inside yourself."

Korra closed her eyes to focus on her inner thoughts. Most of them centered on the same principles as her guilt had. Additional, small instances also came up: her insistence on keeping Kaji a secret, causing the split between them to fracture without being able to confide in anyone, giving up so easily on the firebender instead of fighting to keep what they had alive, being so quick to feel the betrayal of Kaji's actions before even inquiring as to her reasons why or trying to understand things from her point of view. When she was done, Korra looked out into the vortex of fire, sensing the intensity thrumming through the core of the earth and the core of her body.

"You are doing very well Korra," Pathik said. She gave him a wide, genuine smile. Her mind felt much clearer than it had before. The only time she had felt like that had been on the night of the Summer Festival, but even then it had felt only temporary. This assurance coursing its way through her was stronger than the tentative equilibrium she had reached in those sparingly few hours where everything had been just fine. This was permanent; this was all consuming.

High above the ground, in the center of the broken circle in the arms of the sloping crags above their heads, Korra and Pathik looked down at the morning landscape. She had not noticed the time fly by in the timeless recesses of the mountain's base. Up in its crown, she could sense the movement of the sun and moon as one overtook the other and the stars disappeared in the cloak of daylight. It was fascinating how there was no snow on the mountain. The overhang of the right peak sheltered some of the expansive area, but it was not enough to cause the complete, unbroken carbonate. Not even a snowflake when it must have snowed during the night. There was never an evening without a minor flurry this far south.

"The fourth chakra is the Air Chakra," Pathik called over the hum of the morning winds. Korra could not describe it as a roar, it being much too calm for that, but it was above a whistle, enough to carry away words if they were spoken too softly.

"It is the chakra of love, located in the heart. It is a very strong chakra, but can easily be blocked by sorrow. Find your sorrow and release it into the wind. Let the pain flow out to be carried away from you by the gales of serenity."

Korra thought of the night she had kissed Mako and had been rejected. Her heart still throbbed from the badly healed wound. Then she paired it with the news of his departure with Asami. Calming her racing pulse, Korra concentrated on lessening her grip on the boy's heart and letting him go. She wanted him to be happy and knew that, even if it was only as a sister, he would love her until the end and that it would be enough. She then moved on to the prevalent source of her sadness. She felt Kaji's efforts to get her to release her wrists as Korra pushed her into the wall of the room within the Pro-Bending Arena. Her heartbreak at watching the girl walk away from her, leaving her to fall to the floor in a pile of despair. Instead of focusing on that image for too long, Korra replaced it with the moments of bliss they had shared together. Suddenly, as though waking from a stupor and taking in a breath of clarity, Korra knew that Kaji still loved her. The girl had been hurt; she had not known what to do, so she had run. Korra had much the same response whenever she felt pressured.

As though sensing her thoughts, Guru Pathik placed a hand on her shoulder, gently saying, "Love is much stronger than any other emotion, even hatred and loss. You are still loved by your friends, family, and the person you hold dear in your heart."

Korra nodded, her lips quirking into a joyous smile. There was still time. She could still find her wayward Fire Lord and rekindle what they had somehow misplaced. There was no doubt that it would be a difficult task, but it would be worth it.

"The fifth chakra is the Chakra of Sound," the Guru's words echoed from the walls of the enormous room where they found themselves. Its walls were perfectly shaped to carry any acoustics for ages. The old man did not wait for his voice to cease resounding before going on. Had he patiently asked for silence, it would have taken days to finish what he had to tell Korra.

"Sound is located in the throat and deals in truth. The truth that is blocked by the lies we tell ourselves. Look into yourself and find the truth behind all of the lies you have woven."

Korra felt her walls immediately erect into a bulwark against the truths that would have almost certainly hurt her had she not opened her other four chakras. Slowly, calmly, she let go of the excuses she had used to cushion the blame she had heaped on herself for her misguided actions. The walls were slow in coming apart, but she was successful in releasing the false 'truths' she had come to accept, replacing them with the actual ones she needed to hear.

Standing on a natural balcony in the full light of the afternoon sun pouring down on them, Korra expectantly looked at her teacher, waiting for him to reveal the second-to-last chakra. So far, she was confident that she would be able to open up her remaining energy pools. There was an air of excitement surrounding that moment, when she knew that she would be complete again. It had been so long since she had known balance in her life and she desperately craved the notion of a clear mind and body.

"The sixth chakra is the Light Chakra, located at the center of the forehead. It deals with insight and is blocked by illusion; the illusion of separation. You must realize that we are all interconnected with one another. Even the different people of the four nations are truly one people, even if many have forgotten that again. As Avatar, you must come to realize that the barriers we form, the distinctions we create, are all a façade."

Korra nodded. That was perhaps the simplest notion for her to grasp. She had always felt united with the peoples of the world, or rather the one people of the world. She had had no difficulty in making friends with different benders and even nonbenders. Her mind faltered a bit when thinking of the Equalists, but in the end she realized that they were simply frightened of being considered inferior, a fear caused by the perception of the separation that Pathik had mentioned. Amon and Tarrlok had played on those fears, but the victims of their manipulation were not to blame. With another cleansing exhale, Korra felt the pieces of her cerebrum click together in a satisfying release of stress.

They had climbed the tallest of the twin pinnacles of the mountain. The stars were above them again, marking the end of the second day of Korra's spiritual journey. She was slightly afraid of the final task, not enough to block her Earth Chakra again, but the butterflies in her stomach were flapping away quite merrily. Guru Pathik was running his soft eyes over her as though appraising her, watching for something concealed or hard to locate.

"This is the final chakra, the seventh. Your predecessor had a very difficult time in coming to terms with it. I do not wish to frighten you with these words, but you should know that there is no going back once you have begun this final test. Aang nearly lost the ability to enter the Avatar State because he was not yet ready to undertake the seventh chakra and, when he tried to in the midst of battle, he was left vulnerable to Princess Azula's attack. Are you ready to face this challenge?"

Korra knew in her heart that she would not say no. She had come this far and sacrifices were not something new to her. Aang had been young when he had been forced into this; she was at least a bit more experienced… at least she hoped that she was. One hundred years in an ice cube did not count as years the boy had over her. Slowly, she nodded her head and looked into the grey depths of her teacher's eyes. She would do her utmost to not fail herself in this test.

"Very well. The seventh chakra is the Thought Chakra. It is located at the crown of the head. The final chakra deals with pure cosmic energy and is blocked by earthly attachment. You must find all of the things that keep you grounded to this world and let them go."

Korra gazed up at the heavens, so close from the height at which they were standing. She didn't even notice as her spirit detached itself from her body and began to walk up toward the millions of celestial bodies burning with the heat of a thousand suns. A path of purple led her on a tortuous stroll further away from the Earth, now a large ball of green continents and blue oceans with sparing clouds floating over them. Korra's eyes did not see any of those things though. She was completely focused on the large, dark form of a being that resembled her almost exactly. The being's eyes glowed with an ethereal violet light and soon, Korra's irises were imitating it. She had come almost to the end of the winding lace of lavender light, right to the apex of her ascent. A ball of churning energy wrapped itself around her, billowing in streams of purple haze originating in the palms of the giant Avatar floating in front of her. Before her eyes, the faces of those she had cherished and loved flashed brilliantly then faded like the embers of a dying fire. Her parents, her teachers, Asami, Bolin, and Mako. Pema and the kids. Tenzin, Master Katara, Naga. Finally, the one face that lingered most of all. Korra's heart yearned to just keep that one face within it, to erase everything else if only it were allotted a small exception. But the cosmic energy was an all-consuming force and would not settle for a shared space. Korra shook her head, trying to fight the sense of gravity pulling at her, only it wasn't gravity here. Here it was Kaji who was pulling on her to return to the confines of the physical world. It was Kaji keeping Korra from becoming a part of the metaphysical entity that superseded all distinctions and separations.

"I'm sorry Kaji," Korra sighed, a single tear leaking down her cheek and falling back to Earth; falling as a drop of rain on the hand of a firebender far below the Avatar, heading home from a victory that had quickly lost its grandeur to the frowning Fire Lord.

Above the atmosphere, Korra tentatively let the girl slip away from her outstretched hands, opening them as one would open their fingers for a caged bird to be able to spread its wings and fly away. She was a pivotal part of the universe and therefore it was not in her power to fight it any longer. It was her destiny to become one with all things around her. Perhaps, one day, she would be able to return the burning energy being allotted to her and she could take up earthly things ones more. For now however, she had more pertinent things to consider, mainly restoring balance to her world.

Coming back down to her body, Korra awoke with her head resting on a pillow. At some point she had been taken back to Pathik's home in the miniscule shack at the center of nowhere. She was about to question how he had moved her body without disrupting the connection it held with her spirit, but she figured it was just one of those things that one simply did not question. The important thing was that her spirit had found her body without any trouble and she was ready to return to her Avatar duties.

"Thank you Pathik," she said in earnest.

"There is no need to thank me young Avatar, but I gladly accept it anyway," he beamed at her. "You are now free to complete your task and fulfill your destiny in this world. There will be many more challenges for you to face, but now you are prepared for them. Remember, do not be ashamed or afraid of the emotions you feel. Accept them and turn them into something positive."

"I promise I will," Korra then turned to her faithful pooch, still happily snoozing next to a completely chewed up bone. Prodding the sleepy hound awake, she gave her a smile and asked, "You okay to travel girl?"

Naga shifted her leg, testing the ligament that had once been ripped. To both her surprise and the astonishment of her rider, none of the wounds sustained in their flight across the tundra were there anymore. There was not even a scratch or a patch of exposed skin.

"Wow, you did all of this?" Korra turned to look for Pathik, but found that he was no longer there. A chill wind crawled through the holes in the little shack where it had not before, giving the place a deserted feeling. Shrugging her shoulders, Korra led Naga out into the snowfields and got into her saddle. "Alright then, I want to get to Republic City as fast as we can, but there is one place I need to visit first. Come on Naga, time to see an old friend."

**P.S: I have recently discovered Imagine Dragons (the band) and those Imaginary Dragons decided to consume my entire battery in just one day, stupid Apple never lasts long enough I swear (sorry Apple lovers, I just rant some times). Writing the compliments on Katara's character was a little hard, not gonna lie. She was not exactly my favorite character in the show, if that hasn't become apparent already, but I try to keep it balanced and Korra likes her so, FINE. What else... I may or may not update for a while due to a mix up in weekends with my parents so I apologise in advance. REVIEW! You know you want to. For everyone who commented on the previous chapters, thank you all so much, even the flames- which, thankfully, were not many at all and they were pretty mild. Umm, yup, that's about it. I found ice on one of the cars in the driveway today! For a SoCal person that is like a freaking White Christmas! Exciting. Ugh, I need to stop jibbering. Bye, until next time!**


	27. Snowfall

**A/N: Wow, I don't even want to know how long it has been since I updated. So sorry! Life has been hectic and my Junior Project is due on Saturday and all I have done are some flyers, GAHHHHH! But I felt like writing and I finally finished with the revisions (they were quick and sloppy so forgive any mistakes por favor). I will not keep you any longer as you all probably are dying to read the crap I have come up with... unless you aren't and I am just a self-centered author with delusions of grandeur.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except some cookies lying happily in my stomach.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

A ball of churning energy wrapped itself around her, billowing in streams of purple haze originating in the palms of the giant Avatar floating in front of her. Before her eyes, the faces of those she had cherished and loved flashed brilliantly then faded like the embers of a dying fire. Her parents, her teachers, Asami, Bolin, and Mako. Pema and the kids. Tenzin, Master Katara, Naga. Finally, the one face that lingered most of all. Korra's heart yearned to just keep that one face within it, to erase everything else if only it were allotted a small exception. But the cosmic energy was an all-consuming force and would not settle for a shared space. Korra shook her head, trying to fight the sense of gravity pulling at her, only it wasn't gravity here. Here it was Kaji who was pulling on her to return to the confines of the physical world. It was Kaji keeping Korra from becoming a part of the metaphysical entity that superseded all distinctions and separations.

"I'm sorry Kaji," Korra sighed, a single tear leaking down her cheek and falling back to Earth; falling as a drop of rain on the hand of a firebender far below the Avatar, heading home from a victory that had quickly lost its grandeur to the frowning Fire Lord.

Shrugging her shoulders, Korra led Naga out into the snowfields and got into her saddle. "Alright then, I want to get to Republic City as fast as we can, but there is one place I need to visit first. Come on Naga, time to see an old friend."

Korra had heard of the rebuilt capital of the Southern Water Tribe. It was nowhere near as grandiose as the other three nations- the Southern Water Tribesmen being well known for their nomadic movements as the seasons drifted- but it was by far the biggest settlement on the landmass. It had been created for the international travelers and merchants more than anyone bound there by ancestral heritage though the loose government made up of a council of five chieftains and seven lower rank leaders from each small outcropping of people resided there for the larger part of the year. Only in the summer would they disband to return to their respective clans, unless of course a crisis prevented them from doing so. Korra was certain that Master Katara would be there as, because of the Hundred Year War, the old woman had not held allegiance to a clan that existed presently.

The city was really a large dome carved out of an ancient peak, weathered for millennia by the harsh winds that howled day and night without rest. Within the stony alcoves, insulated by furs and layers of ice, was a small metropolis of dark-skinned people and much fewer lighter-skinned foreigners. Houses were in the inner rungs of the maze of walls and crystal mirrors; the shops taking up position in the peripheral so as not to be kept warm during the frigid nights at the expense of energy the poor nation could not afford. Hierarchy and social class never held much sway at the bottom of the world, but most knew that the delegates and wealthy merchants stayed at the lower levels where it was closer to the earth's inner warmth and the bite of the winds was not felt to a great extent. The beggars, thieves, and other miscreants along with the retched rejects of the middle rings were quarantined at the summit of the half-globe jutting into the sky like some colossal snail shell. Despite efforts of aide and rehabilitation, there always seemed to be more miserables occupying those lofty heights than could be helped, no matter how good were the hearts of those who tried.

Korra did not bother to worry herself over them on that day. She had come with a particular mission in mind and, not to say that she didn't care for the poor souls starving in the frozen rooms where icicles could be found hanging from the logs kindled as firewood, she knew that she had to reach her destination quickly lest her nerve fail her at the last moment. Much to the teenager's chagrin, her chakras seemed much easier to blockade the closer she happened to get to her objective. She tried to keep a strong center and a peaceable mind, but Master Katara had been- and was still- such a pivotal persona in her life that Korra had no idea what she was going to do if the old woman did not take what she had to say well.

Naga whined from underneath her, the loving pooch sensing her rider's distress and, since she was unable to reach her with a calming lick, vocalized her reassurance. Korra smiled down at the animal and spurred her on, weaving through the throngs of people crowding the open marketplace at the very center of the mountain. The central plaza was chalk full of people at that time of year. Korra had not even noticed it but New Year's was quickly coming upon them, bearing down like a stampeding bull-boar with its promise of new aspirations and hopes as well as trials and challenges. Korra had always been good about change and the fresh air that was sure to come with the dawning of a fledgling year was palpably exciting. Others seemed to share her love for the oncoming adventures, shouting merriments and waving banners of the animal that would take its place as the patron of the new dawn: the raging dragon returning to its den as the slippery serpent slithered in. Korra silently mused whether that issued the rise of the Fire Nation again- it being a fire elemental and all- or whether the dragon's departure issued forth the premonition of its wane. Shaking her head, the Avatar admonished herself about compounding her concerns with the mysticisms of symbols that could have held as much meaning in them as a pitcher with a broken bottom.

Her eyes scanned the area, looking for the stairwell that descended into the council chambers beneath the crust. Her vision did not fail her, locating a hollow in the ground to her right side, two men in trimmed white fur coats holding sleek hunting knives in each hand standing at the ready before the stairwell leading into the assembly hall. Korra twisted Naga's reins, indicating the change in trajectory so that the furry polar bear-dog veered toward them. They were both young, muscular, and thoroughly bored out of their minds. It was only to be expected as there had not been an attempt on the lives of the chieftains in over fifty years. The guards were the epitome of a well paid laborer whose craft was no longer necessary. At her approach, they pulled themselves together in a semblance of authority, one reaching to grab a boomerang slung over his left shoulder. The other moved to greet her and in a deep voice that was expelled in a tone that painfully mocked affluence said, "Halt. What business do you have here?"  
Korra almost rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wished that she could just project her face into the heavens so that she wouldn't have to keep proclaiming her status as Avatar to every person who happened to not live in the more civilized world. Pulling her shoulders back and putting on an air of seriousness she replied with a curt, "I am Avatar Korra and I wish to see Master Katara. Would you happen to know if she is with the council members down there?"

The wide-eyed looks of bewilderment she was given were almost getting trite. The man addressing her stumbled over his words, trying to straighten his back and puff out his chest whilst apologizing for his "impertinence in the face of such an important international figure."

Korra just waved him off with a quick and cordial acceptance of his lamentations before repeating her question. It seemed that he had not heard it at first, too overwhelmed by the fact that the single most powerful being on the face of the planet was standing- or rather sitting atop a giant polar bear-dog- only a few feet away from him.

"Y-yes, she is- or rather, she was in the Western Wing where her chambers are. Master Katara had gone to the higher levels to care for some of the sick there; this winter has left quite a few feeling worse off than the fall previous. She should be back soon though, that is, if you want to wait for her I would gladly escort you-" his stammers ended with a questioning quirk of an eyebrow as he turned his head to look at the sunken doorway and the cool, metalwork that was snuggly fit within it.

"That would be most appreciated," Korra answered in her best level I-know-what-I-am-doing voice.

The man, if sensing any of her anxiety, showed no signs as he quickly beckoned her forward and held out a hand to aide her in her dismount. Korra took it only because she was sure that he would take it the wrong way if she ignored the gesture and jumped to the ground as she knew she was able. Nodding to the other guard, who stood stagnant in his position without a twitch of emotion, her newly appointed guide led her down the slippery granite stairs and into the heart of the city.

The halls within the bosom of the earth were much grander in scale than those outside. Here, where there were no openings for heat to escape into the cool atmosphere that ever greedily stole any kinetic energy that was presented to it, it was no deterrent to the inhabitants to have long sweeping archways and hollow rooms that echoed the murmurs of water drips on rock or soft whispers of milling people with symphonic waves akin to silent strokes of an inquisitive finger strumming a harp. Here, where the icicles no longer hung by the will of nature, but by the will of the benders held within its cockles, the sheets of frozen water hung as tapestries would in any other place. Heroes and villains of old folklores melded into caricatures of cultural history, woven so intricately into the very fabric of the molecular formations as though they were an aspect of the very soul of the walls of ice. There was light, but it was not the light of torches or crude electrical bulbs as it was above the surface; instead, it came from an unknown source, perhaps the water or even the throbbing neurons of the planet running to coalesce into a nervous bundle here at the apex of the world. And why not consider the ethereal columns of crystalline snow and the wide plains of tundra the cerebrum of the small fragile island hanging in the void amidst the stars? The mapmaker had marked the Southern Water Tribe as the lowest continent on the planet, but they were a sphere and not even the Spirits knew what was 'up' or 'down' when the universe was infinitesimal around them.

The Western Wing was no less spectral than the rest of the inner level. Katara's room itself was a comfortably small one, much more humble than the extravagant ballrooms and parlors that were its neighbors. There were two small coaches situated near a hearth that had recently been used, as indicated by the small, neat piles of ash that had been left from the dying fire. It was evident that someone had come to collect them as there were only small traces in the grooves that could not be prodded by the broom or poker. Behind that particular landmark- situated on the far right, snugly tucked by a wall- but not too close so that the fire would have space away from the paint that had been splashed to color the stones a soothing light blue- was a small table made of bent iron in the shape of small waves that stretched out to hold the smooth mosaic circle up, thinned in the center, and then flailed out again in four spirals on the floor. Upon the bright little square tiles that made up the surface of the piece of furniture was a Pai Sho board. Its pieces had been set up as though the game had been interrupted midway to its finale and the carefully knit strategies had been abandoned for another hour. Two chairs were pulled out casually, awaiting the return of the players, each matching the style of the table that separated them. A small door, next to an extensive bookcase that took up most of the left wall, must have led to the adjoining bedchambers. Korra was tempted to open it just to see if her mentor had not retired for a nap or, as it was difficult to discern the time of day below ground, a prolonged sleep. Her senses spiked as she took a step toward it, the adrenaline forming tight knots within her taut stomach, and she thought better of it. She had to get herself together, calm herself before her Earth Chakra was wrenched from her grasp again. Rerouting her feet, Korra moved to take a seat upon one of the coaches, her body sinking into the plush furs and soft leather underneath as though it had been made to fit the shape of her body.

"I will leave you here then, Avatar Korra?" Korra barely registered the man's cautious inquiry. She had completely forgotten that he had accompanied her into the bowels of the capital city, her hammering heart beating out the other sounds that may have wished for entrance into her ears. Still, she gave a sort of dazed half nod before locking her eyes onto the dark impression of the fireplace. Taking the hint, the man quickly made his exit; the door shutting did not even register in Korra's mind.

Nervousness was by far the most pervasive emotion coursing through the veins of the adolescent staring into the nonexistent flames that would have licked hungrily at the neat array of logs stacked on the iron bars that had been bent into a sort of cradle. Korra couldn't help but silently thank the Spirits that she was not going to need her Avatar State for what she was about to do; had she, she most certainly would have been screwed. As it was, she nearly jumped out of her skin- literally jumping up into a tense standing position- at the sound of the door swinging open to let in the room's solitary occupant, back from whatever errands she had been on and completely not expecting the company that was awaiting her.

"Korra?" Master Katara's voice was one of hushed disbelief, as though she were looking upon something that had been lost to the eyes of the corporeal for a very long time. Korra almost wanted to smile at the old woman and remind her that it really had not been that long since they had least seen each other.

Instead, she opted for a warm and slightly shy, "Hello."

The two women stared at each other for a few moments of silence. The elder one gazed upon her former pupil with unhidden confusion as well as relief etched into every wrinkle of her skin and the shiny lights that came from the reflections of her blue eyes. Korra was trying to come to terms with whether she should be the first to confront the Bending Master with her confession or whether it was cordial to speak of frivolous matters first. In the end, it was all just a ploy from her own mind to keep stalling for as long as she possibly could so as not to disturb her relationship with Katara just yet. Fluorescent, vigorous blues swept away from the darker, wiser ones that bore into Korra's soul, opting for the neutral imagery of the fireplace.

"I am glad that you are alright child," apparently Master Katara was adept with answering Korra's dilemmas for her, knowingly or not. "It has been a long time since Tenzin contacted me, telling me of your departure."

"I- wait, what?" Korra's brows furrowed in a perplexed expression. She could not have been absent that long. It had been only two and a half days for her to arrive at the shores of the southernmost continent, then not even an entire day before the Guru found her in the wilderness. Two days later and perhaps another couple of hours of further travelling and that made her disappearance no longer than a week more or less. Voicing the disparity between Master Katara's words and her own calculations, Korra continued, "I can't have been gone for more than a week or so."

It was then Master Katara's turn to look upon her in doubt. The old woman stepped forward, grabbing a hold of Korra's warm hands and running her fingers over the calloused knuckles and smooth back of the palm. After a moment she looked up and said, "I do not know what strange things have befallen you, my child, but you have been gone for the better part of a month and a half."

Korra's pupils shrunk into small pinpricks amidst an ocean of shiny cerulean. _A month and a half, how was that even possible? I had only been at the Guru's… _she then remembered the other strange paradoxes surrounding the old man. Had she really been with him for so long but had not noticed it. Perhaps they had been in some forgotten corner of the Spirit World where time ran differently than it did in the plain they were in. Her incredible feat of chakra mastery suddenly did not seem as amazing as before, not to mention how worried everyone must have been. Korra did not stop to mull over the abrupt nature of her departure from Republic City as she had already come to terms with it, but a new sense of urgency seemed to overtake her senses.

"What has happened in my absence?" Korra asked, her throat constricting when she spoke of the time elapsed.

By the hesitancy with which Katara opened and closed her mouth, Korra knew that it was nothing good. Her nerves, already frayed, were tingling with anticipation and worry. She had not forgotten the tensions between the nations when she had last been informed of worldly events; now, anything could have happened.

"The Fire Lord and Earth King attacked the Northern Water Tribe," Katara finally spoke. Korra's stomach clenched at the mention of Kaji's title. She nearly choked when the other information sunk in. It was true then, the girl really was going through with everything she had said. It was a new world war. Katara was not finished, "it fell and now it is a protectorate of the two victor nations. Though it really is only one victor nation."

Korra turned to her at the last, muttered, observation. _One victor nation? _An irrational side of her immediately jumped to the conclusion that Kaji had been backstabbed by the Earth Kingdom and was somewhere locked up in a dungeon or bleeding to death in the freezing palace of the northern Tribe. She quickly dismissed the notion with the solid knowledge that Kaji would never allow such a thing to happen to her. If anything, it was the other way around.

Katara affirmed Korra's latter reasoning, "The Earth King has given over control of Omashu to the Fire Nation as a trade port for a new drug called Opium. My contacts in the palace have been dismissed from office by the head of the Dai Li, Agent Kain, but before they were fired they told me of the King's waning sanity and governing prowess in the wake of his own addiction to this substance. They say that it is Kain who now rules the kingdom and that she is allied with Kaji."

Korra's head was swimming. An unprecedented flare of jealousy burned in her veins at the mention of the head of the Dai Li, irrationally hating her for the close ties she held with Korra's firebender. Immediately after the thoughts had surfaced, Korra bottled them in again, chiding herself for her insensitivity to the more vital matters. Omashu, the city had once before been taken by the Fire Nation through conquest of military strategy. Now, it had been handed over in a gift-wrapped bundle. This couldn't have been happening."How- what?" Korra did not know what the right question was; whether there was even a word to express the thoughts running through her brain like headless pig-chickens.

"I know you were close to the girl Korra," master Katara had led her to the couch and gently lowered them both onto the cushions. Korra grimaced noticeably at the spite with which it was said, even if her mentor tried to be discrete about it. Hearing such opposition to a mere friendship was in no way helping Korra feel secure about her own revelations. Unhindered by Korra's visible discomfort, Katara concluded her thought, "but you have to see that she was bred and raised to be the harbinger of another Hundred Year War. I should have seen it before; so blinded was I in my hope that she was different. In the end, she is a product of Azula's need for revenge."

Korra gripped Katara's hand, unsure of what to make of the sadness that laced the old woman's voice when she had finished. Katara's eyes were now downturned, seeking for something on the smooth floor that was either nonexistent or only perceptible by the waterbender.

"M-Master Katara," Korra managed before she was stopped by another surge of burning uncertainty. Her heart pounded in her head, erasing the carefully placed words she had spent hours- and in light of the new amount of time she had spent away, perhaps days would have been a better description- preparing. Her tongue swelled in her mouth to the point that it was too heavy to move and her airflow diminished. Her nostrils flared slightly in an attempt to make up for her lungs' incapacity to function anymore. The waterbender was still not looking at her, lost in her own turmoil over a forgotten memory with consequences only coming into the open now after so many years carefully locked away.

"About Ka- I need to tell y-" Korra could not find a way to start much less get her words out. She had never felt at such a loss. Pathik's words ran through her mind, calming the neurons that seemed to send electric impulses through her faster than was possible or healthy. Taking a centering breath, the Avatar squared her shoulders, gave her mentor's hand another squeeze for reassurance- for whom was uncertain- and began with the only words that she could find. "I was… I am… I love Kaji, Master Katara."

Katara didn't seem to have heard her for a few seconds. Her eyes moved back and forth chasing the beams of light that flickered in the waves of the crystal firelights in the braziers on the walls. Her lips opened slightly before she moved her face to look at the younger girl. Within her eyes were so many emotions, all warring for the right to overtake her, that Korra had trouble keeping up. Her hand loosened its grip on the crinkled dark hands only to have them grip her by the wrists in an almost painful hold. Cut nails still dug into the sensitive flesh over the joint, pressing into the bone and sinew as though seeking some sort of proof that Korra had indeed said it, that she was not some sort of sick illusion.

"You what?" it was not whispered, not even breathed. Katara's voice came out as a sort of whistled inhale or a wheezing crack of the larynx. Korra was astounded by how much misgiving the waterbending master put into so few words. An utterance, nothing but an incantation of two simple slips of the tongue, hurt more than any physical blow or incision. Korra's heart leapt into her throat and she found that her previous ability to spit out a few coherent drabbles had also been taken from her.

"Korra, you-" Katara also seemed to be at a loss of how to respond. Instead of Korra's silence however, she seemed to have the opposite reaction. What followed was a string of inconclusive and open-ended sentences that made no sense at all but bore into Korra's soul as would any knife, contorting in circles around her heart. What was being said was not important and was forgotten by the listener and the speaker within the very birth of the sounds that it travelled on; as it was, it was the very fact that such nothings were being poured into the frigid air of the once welcoming little room that broke the young Avatar.

"I'm sorry," Korra choked out between tears that streamed down her cheeks. She didn't even know what she was apologizing for. She did not regret loving Kaji, even now after everything she had seen and heard, after all they had gone through, she held no regret in feeling for the other girl. But there she was, on her knees- at some point moving so that she was kneeling in front of the old woman, grasping at her furs in an attempt to have Katara look at her- spouting lamentations for… for something. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

"Hush child," Katara's voice, hollow for the most part with some vestiges of what could have been both sympathy and guilt or neither of the two. "Hush."

Korra felt the arms around her and it was with that act that the last walls broke down and she burst into tears. Her body shook with the fear and frustration seeping from her eyes and onto the soaked jacket adorning the caring woman embracing her. Katara rocked back and forth in steady strokes, pulling the girl into her and then compressing them together as though applying pressure to an open wound to try and stem the flow of blood. After a while Korra began to feel her calculating and analytical faculties return to her; with their reentrance into her cerebrum she began to wonder whether Katara was accepting her confession or whether her veritable grandmother was doing this only to convince herself that Korra was alright and that somehow she could fix this. In a flash of inexplicable anger, Korra felt a strong resentment toward any attempt at consolation and repentance.

"I should have known it," Katara murmured into her hair. Korra stiffened, but was quickly subdued by a firm yet gentle hand running down her back. "I should have seen it; all of those glances and the way you two were always so close to one another. I- I should have seen this."

Korra kept silent, unsure of what she should say or whether she was doing the right thing in not saying anything at all. Katara continued her petting, running deft hands through the unruly waves of hair that made up Korra's ponytail before moving down further over the cloth along her spine. All the while she continued in her mantra, stating the now obvious connection between Korra and the firebender.

"I should have seen it… I could have put a stop to it," Katara muttered. Korra suddenly shot out of her arms, fully standing up and holding her arms across her chest as though to try and ward off the spiteful words that her teacher had just said. Katara looked at her as though she was some naïve child, the pity swimming in the dark indigo of her eyes.

"Stopped it?" Korra whispered, looking as though she had been slapped across the face. Her words came out in an angry, rushed garble, each one trying to escape quicker than the one before it, "I- I don't want you or anyone to 'have put a stop to it.' The person I choose to love is mine to have, no matter where they are from or who was their grandmother. Hell, I could care less if Koh was Kaji's uncle! How could you say something like that?"

It was Katara's turn to rise, stating in a frustrated matter-of-fact voice reserved for an impudent child with no idea of what they were saying, "Did you not hear what this person whom you love has done? She slaughtered the Northern Water Tribe, imprisoned the chief and his court, drugged the Earth King… I cannot even begin to fathom what she has been involved in that we do not know! Kaji is not someone to be loved, Korra. She is a weapon of war, just like her grandmother was. She-"

"Kaji is a human being!" Korra yelled with a vehemence that she had not been aware that she possessed. "She is not a 'thing.'"

"She is a product of the corruption and obsession that haunts her family line. Perhaps the girl herself was not inherently evil, but she was born to be raised in the way of the Fire Lords of Sozin's time, of Ozai's."

"You don't know her," Korra growled. She knew the facts were against her, that Kaji was in fact committing the same acts of war that her forbearers had become infamous for, but there was a part of her screaming in the defense of the firebender; a very large, formidable part.

"Don't I?" Master Katara rebutted. "I have seen what her family is capable of, lived it for the majority of my life; you are the one who does not know her, Korra. She has tricked you just as her grandmother tricked us all."

Korra knew she was at a disadvantage when it came to the former Fire Nation Princess. Azula had always been a name that was said in a sort of reverent hush amongst the older generation; as though she were a fallen deity that could still inspire fear and change within the world even if she was no longer a part of it. The youth had a more dismissive view of her as they were never taught enough by their elders. Her silence became drawn out, but it remained clear that she was not willing to back down yet. Korra's lips pressed together in a thin line, running like a spear across the bottom of her face. She opened and closed her mouth once, twice, then let a deflated, "Kaji is not Azula," under her breath.

"She is the closest thing to her that I have seen since she passed away," Katara challenged. Another flicker of alien emotion crossed her face before the anger and frustration returned. Korra simply glared at her, refusing to take part in a battle that had no room for logic and fact. Katara had a way of playing on people's trust and emotions to the point of manipulation and Korra did not want to be turned against her- she still didn't know what to call Kaji as 'former' lover was too depressing for her to bear at the moment- 'friend-and-then-some.'

"Why do you hate Kaji so much? I agree that her present intentions are not the best, but you hated her from the moment that you laid eyes on her," Korra finally cut through the void of soundlessness. Katara looked taken aback by the question; in itself it was strange as it was quite a valid observation, but Korra waited patiently for the answer without any further analysis that could later be disproven.

"I- I do not 'hate' the girl," Katara started hesitantly. Her fingers came to rest on her waist before clasping together and then crossing over her chest to mimic Korra's. "I simply did not trust her."

Before Korra was able to interject with how much of a ridiculous underestimation her statement was, Korra silenced her with an, "and I was completely right not to."

"You used bloodbending on her!" Korra shouted, her hands flailing as though to demonstrate just how the master bender had accomplished the feat. "Something you yourself abolished ages ago! If you do not hate her, I am afraid of seeing what you would do to her if you did."

The disarmed look Korra received had her stomach clench with both victory and grief; she did not like seeing her closest friend and caretaker in such a state of loss, yet her heart betrayed her with a slight twinge of sweetness that was unmistakably a product of her closing argument.

"I was wrong to have done that. Korra, what I did… what I do, I do in order to protect this world from turmoil and to protect you from the burden that is placed upon your shoulders. I tried to do the same for Aang in his time; I failed at it in so many ways; you are my redemption and I care for you enough to damn the sacrifices that are required."

Korra's eyes softened, gazing down at the old woman and the fragility she had exposed to her. Master Katara rarely let her into the inner circles of her mind where the thoughts of doubt floated about like little dark clouds. Her hands reached over to grasp Katara's again. The contact was a nice reminder that nothing short of apocalyptic could tear them apart from each other. Softly, hoping that the sheer sincerity was not lost to the cold of the room, Korra earnestly pleaded, "I know that it is hard for you to understand and these things are taboo, but I can't take back how I feel, Master Katara; nor would I want to change anything about what my heart wants. I just want you to accept me, if nothing else."

"Oh, my dear girl," Master Katara had that look again. The one in which she was speaking to a child who knew nothing about the world; in a way, she was not too far off. "I understand the love you feel better than most people would, certainly better than most would like to admit. I just don't want you to repeat the same mistakes that I did; I don't want you to get hurt in the same way I was: having to choose between what your heart desires and what you believe is right."

The confession was mystifying as it was unexpected. Katara's words made no sense to Korra who had always believed that the woman had had one of those extraordinarily rare loves that lasted for eternity and could never have been broken by anything. And Aang had been tied directly with her duties; the implied message of a third party caught the young Avatar by surprise and more. A forbidden love, something she would have never paired with the kind, faithful waterbender guiding her once more to the comfort of the fur-lined cushions by the fireplace.

"W-what are you saying?" Korra was not sure she wanted the answer, she was not sure if she had crossed a boundary that should have been left alone in slumber, but she couldn't stop the curiosity burning in her throat.

The hesitation and pain that flashed through Katara's facial features, tightening her muscles and jaw until her skin was drawn tight across her skull, was enough to cause Korra to regret prying into the deeply embedded secrets of her mentor's past. Katara was torn between her moral obligation to confide in the young girl who had opened herself up to her with the faith of being cared for and the fact that she had guarded the lies and deceptions woven around the case for more years than she cared to count.

"One day I will tell you Korra. I will unveil to you how I had knowledge, even if it was only hypothetical at the time, of Kaji's part to play in all of this. The path that has been given to the Fire Lord was chosen for her years before her birth and you deserve to know it all, but I cannot tell you now. There is so little time and I do not have the entire story to give you. At the present, we must prepare for our counterattack now that you are here once more."

Korra was slightly miffed at having the critical information withheld from her, her eyes burning with the intense need to understand the circumstances that had led to the unexpected events of Kaji's ascension to the throne of the Fire Nation and her plots for world domination. Wisely, she saw that Master Katara was not going to say any more on the subject, no matter how much she begged for it so Korra backed down for the time being. Instead, she went with a question in regard to the matter at hand, their retaliation strategy, "How are you proposing we do this?"

Master Katara beamed at her with a weary, grateful smile. Her hands brought Korra's up to clasp them in a sort of pyramid between the two women. "A group of refugees from the Northern Water Tribe capital have arrived in the city with vital information on the state of the city. We are going to debrief them and then you and I are heading to Republic City; Tenzin will be awaiting us with anticipation. Oh, and there is one more thing. I believe it is time to revive another ancient sect from my youth. Kaji may have the Dai Li, but we have the Order of the White Lotus."

The frigidity of the winter air billowed fully over the Earth Kingdom city now. It was nearing the spring months, but none of the residents would have known it by the sheets of snow that clung to the shutters and windowsills or caked the rooftops in a coating that would have looked as sweet as frosting had it not been for the faint grey hue created by the smog that sprung from the hearths of industrial buildings and the chimneys of homes. Children ran along the streets with wild abandon, not afraid of vehicles roaring through the streets as the roads had all been blocked by the frozen raindrops falling in merry, slow drifts. New Year would be upon them within a day or two, depending on the region. For the members of the western city, it was later than the eastern capital of the continent. It was better in a way as the inhabitants would have more time to prepare for the on-coming festivities. That was, if the snow would cease to come down long enough to get the banners of green and gold up without having the fabric grow heavy with moisture.

From the old palace atop the giant projection rising from the circular gorge that surrounded Omashu, two women stood on a balcony ringed in glass to keep the warm air inside of the chambers behind them. A pair of green eyes warily gazed at the strained golden ones moving smoothly over the landscape. Kaji had been somewhat put off by the detour, wishing that she could recline in the heat of the land of eternal summer. Sure, the Fire Nation had regions where the little flakes could find solace on the infertile granite of the high mountains, but for the majority of the continent snow was something to be seen in pictures and heard of in stories. Not that Kaji hadn't had enough travels to be intrigued by the frozen phenomenon; her arms folded across her chest as she moved to lean against the cool surface of the transparent walls enclosing them. Behind her, she felt Izuru's unwavering gaze. The woman had not left her side since they had returned to the Earth Kingdom as requested in a telegram she had sent. The Earth King had cordially given the ancient city of the star-crossed lovers to the Fire Nation as a trading post for opium refinement over three weeks ago. It had been a welcome surprise, unfortunately followed by a more somber mandatory 'invitation' to stay in the city and coordinate the transition with as much efficiency as possible. If she had been honest, Kaji had not expected the man to give into her- and Izuru's- persuasions so easily. Her paranoia had been running rampant with each day that passed, waiting for the hidden traps that surely were to be sprung upon her at the slightest lowering of her guard. Korra's prolonged absence had only made things worse for the Fire Nation girl, compounding the closed-in sensation spreading through her day by day.

Her musing was broken by a pair of slender arms wrapping around her waist and a sharp chin coming to rest on her shoulder. Out of all of the unexpected complications that had arisen since the victory over the Northern Water Tribe, Izuru's clinginess was perhaps the only one that Kaji was having trouble dealing with. She, despite all of her training in the manipulation and calculation of the human psyche, was a horrible people person and the sudden change in the demeanor of the once cold earthbender was not something the Fire Lord felt equipped to deal with. Her heart, no matter how much she wished she could tear the infernal thing out and stomp it into ashes on the ground, still longed for the embrace of darker arms and the strong smell of animal pelts and fresh air. She was not foolish enough to outwardly distance herself from Izuru- the loss of a valuable ally was unthinkable at this stage of the game- but internally she cringed each time she locked lips with the other woman or climbed into her bed. She hated feeling as though she was betraying Korra; it was an enigma that caused her head to practically split in half, wondering whether she had a viable reason to be with whomever she wanted now that Korra no longer viewed them as a couple- if she had even thought of them as such before- or if she should have waited longer before taking someone else in. Though her relationship with the Dai Li agent was anything but intimate, apart from the sexual aspect; both girls knew that they held no love for each other past the love a master had for a fine tool. Still, Kaji couldn't shake the feeling of gnawing sadness each time she thought of Korra with the firebender boy form Republic City and reflected the image onto her activities.

"You know you're going to get wrinkles if you keep scrunching your eyebrows like that," Izuru's voice slithered into her ear, tickling the flesh beside the auditory organ. Kaji half turned to look into the milky jade eyes that were focused on a point in the distant horizon. The flatness of the lands surrounding the cliffs that dropped off around the city allowed for a peripheral view of miles around. There had been mountains there once, but constant travel, erosion, and a large amount of earthbending intervention had ground the tips to nothing more than slight bumps spreading in an ocean of dusty waves. Now the snow provided the mirage of sea foam along the crests of the protrusions, sitting stagnant in their perpetual illusion of motion.

"I doubt I will live long enough for that to happen," Kaji chuckled. A small part of her- though it was growing with each day that the lull in battle continued- told her that she was doomed to fail. Call it spiritual premonition or cold feet, but it was slowly driving her to insanity. She briefly wondered if her grandmother had experienced the same creeping dread on the eve of her Agni Kai with her brother. Perhaps she had felt it as an aspect of her paranoia and mild schizophrenia, or maybe Kaji was simply weaker than Azula had been.

"Thinking it will only hasten its passing," Izuru sagely announced. Her hands moved up Kaji's clothing, rubbing her sensitive spots so that the friction of the earthbender's hands coupled with the fabric's roughness drew small moans from the firebender. Kaji was horrible at lying to herself, not even trying to pretend that she was not turned on by the way Izuru moved against her body. In a way, she had come to rely on the girl's caresses as signs that she had at least someone who was still attracted to her, even if it was only for her experience under the sheets.

"Not now," she finally breathed. "I have to go to another meeting with the Minister. He wants to discuss the Fire Nation immigrants that have been arriving over the past few days, something about conserving the rights of the earth citizens and respecting their cultures, blah, blah, blah."

Izuru chuckled at the utter despair that was shown in Kaji's mimics of the cranky old man who still attempted to cling to his power and prestige in spite of the fact that Omashu was no longer his. Tightening her hold on the younger girl she bit into her earlobe and whispered, "He can wait. It's not like he is anyone important and now that you are the ruler of this 'Fire Nation trading post' I'm sure that you will be forgiven one little transgression. Make him sweat a little."

Kaji smirked at Izuru's enticements. Her hand moved to push her off of one of the balusters holding up the balcony's iron railing while she turned within the Dai Li agent's arms. Their lips met in a fierce battle for dominance as she walked Izuru back into the confines of the royal chambers she had taken for herself. The interior doors closed of the small patio and curtains were drawn over the glass to provide for some privacy even if they were too high up for anyone to really see them.

To the north, heavy clouds of winter rolled down on the strong currents, carrying with them the scent of fresh snow. The clamor of the New Year's preparations halted again as the people moved inside to avoid being caught in the impending storm. A few looked out of closed windows like excitable children anticipating the deluge. An old man in a small shack at the outskirts of a forgotten little village in the Earth Kingdom set up a Pai Sho board and began to play against an invisible opponent, favoring the White Lotus gambit and awaiting the kind words of a friend.

**P.S: Sort of a transition chapter but I am at my mom's this weekend which means an update hopefully. No promises though as I will be away most of Saturday for a Science Expo cause I am a mega nerd (even if astronomy really isn't my cup of tea BIO RULES). I have also discovered the sheer genius of The Great Gatsby and am insanely jealous of his writing- it is beautiful, magnificent, and, even if the book was somewhat confusing and a little short for my taste, it was the epitome of amazingness. Thank you Fitzgerald and I hope that you are not turning in your grave at my horrendous butchery of adjectives. Anyhow, hope you all liked it REVIEW! and until next time.**


	28. Past Mirages (Part I)

**A/N: Ah, I am so happy that this chapter is done. It took forever, I know, but yesterday I had to find a whole bunch of stuff for my history project and Skyrim practically ate up my weekend. That and I went to see OZ the Great and Powewrful (one of the best movies ever in my humble opinion so go see it!). So yes, my excuses are horrible and only display my lack of self-control. Sorry. But it is longer, at least in pages on my Word Doc, so hopefully that makes up for it. And none of the fanfictions I am currently reading have updated so I think there is a lack of creativity or something going around... along with the flu which I contracted last week and am finally over. Hurray! Anyway, onwards and upwards so bring your ladders. That made no sense. Review and make me a happy, happy person. I feel that the popularity of this fic has gone down some and I can't help but think it is because of my hectic update timeline. Again, so sorry. Review!**

**Disclaimer: I own my new Snow White and the Huntsman blue-ray, but other than that there is nothing in my possession that I am proud of, especially not A:LOK, so don't sue.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"One day I will tell you Korra. I will unveil to you how I had knowledge, even if it was only hypothetical at the time, of Kaji's part to play in all of this. The path that has been given to the Fire Lord was chosen for her years before her birth and you deserve to know it all, but I cannot tell you now. There is so little time and I do not have the entire story to give you. At the present, we must prepare for our counterattack now that you are here once more."

Korra was slightly miffed at having the critical information withheld from her, her eyes burning with the intense need to understand the circumstances that had led to the unexpected events of Kaji's ascension to the throne of the Fire Nation and her plots for world domination. Wisely, she saw that Master Katara was not going to say any more on the subject, no matter how much she begged for it so Korra backed down for the time being. Instead, she went with a question in regard to the matter at hand, their retaliation strategy, "How are you proposing we do this?"

Master Katara beamed at her with a weary, grateful smile. Her hands brought Korra's up to clasp them in a sort of pyramid between the two women. "A group of refugees from the Northern Water Tribe capital have arrived in the city with vital information on the state of the fallen city. We are going to debrief them and then you and I are heading to Republic City; Tenzin will be awaiting us with anticipation. Oh, and there is one more thing. I believe it is time to revive another ancient sect from my youth. Kaji may have the Dai Li, but we have the Order of the White Lotus."

Republic City was finally beginning to feel the warm breath of spring glide over its snow-covered rooftops. Its situation on the coast made the summers and winters milder than the interior of the continent so it was not to be unexpected that it would be among the first to sense the change of seasons. The extensive rooms collectively referred to as the Assembly Hall were empty for the day as per request of the Council and, though only two of the councilors were present, no one spent too much time questioning the motives of the tall, bald man and the short, fur-clad woman sitting at a round table in one of the smaller rooms held within the building. The quarters were plain, holding no tapestries or glistening marble facades, made of wood and lit by a dozen or so lamps along the walls. The light mahogany panels deceptively withheld their hidden girth that blocked any wandering ears from being privy to any words that would have been uttered behind their protective barrier. Small was a relative term in the grandiose structure of the Republic City governing building and as such, the Spartan expanse was large enough to accommodate another ten people comfortably. The current inhabitants sat in silence, contemplating the arrival of the assembly of people who had been summoned from the distant corners of the world.

The door to the right corner nearest to the current inhabitants creaked open in a slow, steady swing. Behind it was a nervous, timid Korra; her back slightly arched so her head could peer into the room without the entirety of her body being revealed to anyone already present. Once she saw that it was only Tenzin and Katara, she visibly relaxed and fully entered the conference hall. She took the seat in between the two elemental masters, carefully inspecting the rest of the empty seats yet to be filled.

Korra had returned with Master Katara from the south only a few days prior. Tenzin had been so emotionally unhinged that Pema had had to pry the man off of the Avatar before she met a premature end through asphyxiation. Still, Korra was grateful that he was not upset at her- when she had even mentioned an apology after the airbender had calmed, he had swatted her head lightly and forbidden her from saying anything of the sort. According to him, it had been only through the express instructions of Lin that he had not sent the entire naval fleet under Iroh II to find her. Laughing, Korra made it her imperative to find the metalbender and thank her. Things had returned to a semblance of normalcy after that. There were, of course, a few links bent out of shape: what with the whole Kaji world conquering threat, Koh's looming ultimatum, and Bolin's awkwardness around her and his brother. Still, Korra tried to take all of her blessings and use them as a sort of shield against all of the upheaval that was fast approaching. Her friends would be there for her, even Bolin had said as much on the rare occasion that she had caught up with him on a sunny day whilst running errands, and there was really no use in worrying about the future when it was out of her hands for the moment. In a way, Korra had been dreading the coming of this day, counting the seconds leading up to it as though she could somehow will them to slow down even a fraction.

Time, unfortunately, held plans of its own, choosing to ignore the Avatar as a mountain would ignore the push of some meager insect. Master Katara had sent out word to all of the remaining members of the White Lotus; most were older generation who had survived the Hundred Year War and held close ties with the master waterbender but there were a few younger apprentices who took the places of those too fragile to make it. Korra had only stayed at the docks long enough to shake hands and hear names- forgetting more than half of them as soon as they were offered to her. In her mind, it would only serve to further muddy her chakras if she dwelt among them for too long. If her behavior had been seen as rude, no one had made any mention of it.

The door opened for a second time, letting in the assortment of men and women who were expected. Two of the older men were of the Fire Nation, holding themselves high and poised with their robes flowing in rich waves to the floor. One of the men had a long braid running down the length of his back and a matching goatee, both white as the wings of a crane. The other man had a cropped hairstyle, tied in a neat topknot so as to keep the strands from getting into his deep set grey eyes. A young woman and older man came in after them, obviously of Earth Kingdom nationality as both were garbed in sheets of green and brown. The girl's hair was jet black and straight, flowing like a piece of metal over her clothing. Her green eyes reminded Korra of a crisp mountain meadow in the throes of summertime. The man was older; his face coursed with wrinkles which only deepened as he gave everyone in the room a warm smile and took his seat. He held an air about him that immediately endeared him to the rest of those around. The leader of the Northern Water Tribe refugee rebel group came in next. His bulging build caused him to have to bend in order to enter the room; the door's width also forced him to turn sideways upon entry. His blue eyes searched the faces of the others like some hunted animal assessing its options. Others filed in but did not take the chairs. They were the younger, less experienced interns who waited to carry the news of what transpired here to their mentors. The final member came in on silent feet. His clothes were simple, reflective of a lower-class upbringing in the farm districts of the central Earth Kingdom. Korra's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the familiar smile and the dark abysmal depths of the ember eyes of Hatsuharu. She would have never imagined seeing him again after her departure from his small village in search of Kaji's captors all those months ago. He nodded toward her sagely, almost as if to say that he was not in the least bit surprised by their re-acquaintance.

"As you are all aware," Katara stood to address the meeting as soon as Hatsuharu had taken his seat, leaving one empty chair on the far side of the hardwood table, "we are gathered here to fulfill our purpose in this world; once more we are needed to maintain the precarious balance that exists between the Four Nations, now jeopardized by the Fire Lord."

A murmur of voices swept over the space like a solitary wave on a usually still lake; in such a way it moved as to break out and then quiet to a lull in only a few seconds as though it had never existed. Katara cleared her throat, noticing the balled fists of her young pupil and the rigidity of the two Fire Nationals. The tensions between those who remembered the war would never truly fade; the people would forever react through guilt and regret for what had been done or anger that they were still being blamed.

"I do not hold the Fire Nation alone responsible for the events that are transpiring now," she continued, her voice working to diffuse the hushed strain. "It is the fault of all the nations that Kaji was able to gain the popular support of her people and the people of the Earth Kingdom. We felt that charging the Fire Nation with reparations and trying to cover up the sores caused by the Hundred Year War was enough to fix the world, but we were wrong. Now is the time to make up for our past mistakes. This time, we must be sure to find a solution instead of a temporary crutch."

Murmurs of agreement rang out among the assembled members of the White Lotus. Heads were nodded and a few hands clapped before their owners recognized that it was not the time for such gestures. However, not all were taken by Katara's charismatic view of the future. One of the Earth Kingdom members rose from his chair, his hands sweeping to touch fingertips together in a spear, resting the apex of the nails on his pointer fingers against the table. His eyes flitted over his quiet audience, before turning to address the former speaker, "I think we should be more focused on getting to that point Master Katara. With all due respect, you have allowed the Fire Nation girl to take over one nation completely and anchor a stronghold in another already. If it is not your preference for the dramatic that has caused you to wait for such a long time, doing nothing to thwart her advances in any way, then you must enlighten me as to why we have twiddled our thumbs while the enemy has been carving out the world as she sees fit."

Glares and angry voices rose up in tandem, their crescendos and troughs rolling crashes of thunder and restless lapses of silence, until Tenzin's hands went up and the assembly was hushed once more. Katara's hand moved across Korra to tap her son on the forearm in thanks. The airbender nodded and returned to his seat, along with the rest of those with seats to return to. Everyone residing by the walls also regained order; pressing against the perimeter of the room they became like the shadows, cast by the faint electric lights, spilling over them.

"I agree that it was not the best course of action," Katara bobbed her head up and down in slow rhythm, "but the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation councilors within Republic City were in favor of Kaji's offensive on the Northern Water Tribe. With the intentions of the North in question, and their representative missing and an alleged conspirator and kidnapper, the Council was tied in a stalemate. We cannot simply discard the voices of two of the Four Nations without appearing hypocritical… and without the word of the Avatar…"

Katara trailed off. Everyone in the room knew that one word from Korra would have been enough to send the entire armada out in the defense of the fallen frozen capital; they also knew that that word had never come, nor had she sent any sort of aid in any form to the conquered and resource-starved citizens who had died to protect their ancestral lands. The Avatar could feel the weight of the accusing eyes that fell upon her as the occupants of the room all asked their unanimous, unspoken question: _Why?_ It was the one question that she could not answer them, not for lack of an answer, but lack of a presentable one. The Avatar was not supposed to fall in love with the enemy, especially since that enemy happened to be of the same gender. Her blue irises dilated in the flash of the lights off of jewelry and fine silks, adorning those in the room like miniature stars waiting to explode in little supernovas and engulf her into the ensuing black holes.

"I-" she made to speak, to try and come up with some semblance of an acceptable excuse for her extended absence. Fortunately, it was in that moment that the door to the room swung open in the wake of a very tall, very imposing figure clothed in shadow from the frame.

"I apologize for my tardiness," a smooth voice said. Korra's skin felt like an electric shock had gone through it. The lilt in the pronunciation of the syllables was so familiar to her that it was almost physically painful. Had her firebender's voice been deep and pronounced in the fashion of men's, it would have been a perfect match. She did not know what she had expected of the man who now stood before them all, his dark hair cascading across his back with the exclusion of a few strands that were tucked in a topknot held together with a red lace rimmed in gold. His eyes sparkled with the molten precious metal, brilliant and warm as the sun with as much power behind it as the star itself. The pale complexion was a match to the current Fire Lord's milky skin. Even the face, despite its rougher edges and broader jaw, was so shockingly analogous to Kaji that Korra had to forcibly remind herself to keep her mouth shut and the gasp threatening to spill out curbed.

"Ah, Lord Kirei, your presence is most welcome," Katara beckoned to the empty chair at the opposite curve from Korra's seat. The man swept past the staring eyes and questioning glances as though they were nothing. His feet made no sound, moving like water, or perhaps even fire itself, across the velvet carpet until he stood facing the Avatar and her two teachers with his hands neatly resting on the back of the little wooden chair before him- the piece of furniture looked quite inadequate in the wake of his finery and it made Korra feel incredibly uncomfortable for some unknown reason.

"Master Katara," he nodded before placing himself leisurely into the spot allotted him. "I seem to have interrupted something important; please, do continue."

"No," Master Katara answered in a steady, pleasant voice. It was apparent that she held some form of esteem for the man, but Korra sensed something beneath the surface that caused a hint of strain in her mentor's usually calm demeanor. "This meeting is adjourned for the time being. We will reconvene to discuss the finer details of the topics discussed at a later date."

"You cannot end things here!" a chorus of men voiced similar disgruntled interjections, each stating and repeating the importance of the continuation of the discussion and- on a subtler note- who was going to take the fall for the obvious tardiness with which all of the counterstrike plans were taking place.

"As one of the oldest members of the Order and the standing Head of Assembly, I reserve my right to call an end to this!" Katara boomed over them all, old men and sprite youths alike. With wounded pride, the room was emptied of the men and women within the secret society until only Katara, Tenzin, Korra, and the latest arrival were remaining. Katara looked over to her son who had an expectant look on his face. "You too, Tenzin."

He was clearly surprised, as was Korra, at the curt dismissal. Knowing better than to argue though, Tenzin bowed his head and headed for the lone exit. His footsteps faded down the hidden passage, blocked out once more by the door so as to afford them some privacy.

Katara stood still for a few moments, her brows together in an expression that Korra had been seeing more and more of lately. The Avatar's eyes trailed back to the hands, neatly placed palms down on the soft wood of the assembly table, of the other person present. She still couldn't muster up the necessary courage to peer into his eyes for fear of the likeness they would hold within them. She had no idea how Katara had found this man, or who he was really, but her hunch was that- though his obvious relation to Kaji was apparent to anyone with eyes- he did not share the same beliefs as the late Fire Princess Azula or the Fire Lord. It was the only explanation of his presence that made sense; Katara would never be foolish enough to let him within sight of the building if he had not proven his trustworthiness completely.

"Korra, this is Kirei of Agni's blood. I promised you answers to the questions you confronted me with in the Southern Water Tribe. He is my answer, along with some of my own narrative. It will not be a complete story, but it is the closest I can give you without actually asking Kaji herself," Katara cupped Korra's hand in her own, pressing it between her flesh and the cool surface of the table. Korra wanted to pull back from the mahogany connecting her with the thin, delicate fingers of the man straight across from them but she refrained from moving. "He is Azula's only son… and Kaji's father."

Korra visibly recoiled. Her back slapped into the chair with more force than she had anticipated, tipping the thing slightly so that it balanced precariously on only two legs before clunking back down to a more secure standing. Kirei showed no signs of offense to her reaction; he stayed quietly on his side of the conference room, observing and waiting for his queue to speak. In the young Avatar's mind, she tried to come to terms with the information she had been presented. Kirei, this man sitting not even a few feet away, was Kaji's father. Random questions flitted through her cerebrum like little buzzing vulture-wasps: _Why had Katara allowed him here? Why had Kaji never told her about her father? Why was he not with his daughter in the Fire Nation or wherever Kaji was now? Did he know about them?_

Panic set in, quickly overcoming any other emotion in her system. If Master Katara had brought him here to tell her about Kaji, his daughter, then she might have revealed to him the nature of Korra's relationship to the firebender. The thought sent a bizarre numbness through her body, almost like a slow, paralyzing poison swallowing up her ability to run or even think of something to say. She had never really contemplated parental approval as she had not seen her own parents for quite some time and Kaji seemed to have simply materialized out of thin air. In retrospect, Korra wanted to smack herself for not even thinking that Kaji would have had family other than Azula or that, at some point, Korra might have come to meet a member of said family. The entire experience was mortifying at best.

"In order for me to tell the story of my daughter," his voice wafted to her through the vibrating invisible air particles, shaking its way into her auditory nerve with the subtlest of motions, "I must reveal a small part of my own childhood and my mother's peculiar interest in her progeny."

Katara pulled at Korra's arm to lower the girl so that she could quietly whisper a secretive, "I will add upon his words after he is finished, but I must tell you in privacy so be patient a little while longer," then added even more softly, "I have not told him of your affections toward Kaji as I believe it to be your decision."

Kirei, seeing the exchange end, took a centering breath and opened his mouth to convey his enlightening knowledge into the enigma that Kaji presented. Korra stood with baited anticipation, marveling at just how impacted the man seemed. For all of his demure calm only minutes before, he acted as one teetering on the edge of a precipice that had no foreseeable bottom.

"I never really knew my father…"

_A young boy ran through the large palace courtyards, streaming behind him was a dragon's head with a body and tail made out of beautiful paper waves of red and orange and gold. The summer wind trickled through the gaping maw of the titanium based creature, creating the illusion of animate flight. The laughter ringing from the boy's equally wide mouth rang throughout the hallways that echoed better than the walls of any cave. Behind him ran a girl, smaller in size though her features betrayed the greater maturity she possessed, similarly excited. Her small voice called after the rambunctious child getting farther and farther away, his tiny legs pumping him on with a vitality that could not be matched._

_"Kirei, wait for me. Father told us to play together but you keep on running away! It's not fair," the girl, exhausted and completely frustrated with her inability to catch up to her friend, tiredly whined as she collapsed in the soft grass that reflected the heat of the sun onto her crème flesh._

_"Well, it isn't exactly my fault that you're so slow," the boy replied with gusto. He loved it when he was able to outdo his cousin in something. Privately, it held an innocence that only children retained; in sight of his mother, the victories he held over the older girl always marked the appearance of a rare and welcome half-smile of approval. Little Kirei lived for those moments. Lately, however, with the apparent lack of ability to firebend, Azula had been distancing herself further from her child. His little heart had no real idea as to why that was and, though she still told him that she loved him and that he would be a great man one day, the disparity was felt subconsciously._

_"Am not," the girl replied, giving herself a quick boost with infant flames of orange and red which quickly turned into an uncontrolled tumble that brought her crashing into his prone form. Kirei hated it when Zuko's daughter used her gift around him as it showed the only advantage she naturally possessed that he had been exempted from._

_"That was horrible. You should practice more so you don't end up looking like an idiot in front of anyone important," Kirei snidely remarked. He wanted to feel good when the tears came into her small golden eyes but his stomach clenched and he quickly apologized to the sniffling girl. He cringed at the thought of his mother seeing him asking for forgiveness. Still, they were alone in the glade and he did not have to pretend to be cold toward his best friend and only relative he actually liked being around._

_A teenage Kirei paced back and forth across the room. He had been spending most of his years at the Fire Nation Academy for Boys and this was his first week of vacation. Returning to the Fire Capital was both a blessing and a curse to him. He was happy to be afforded the opportunity to see his cousin again and see how she was progressing in the adjacent school; the bad part was suffering through another series of weeks where his mother tried to hide her disappointment of his nonbender status and the fact that she could not train another firebender of prowess who shared her blood. He loved the woman, but sometimes it seemed like his hatred for her irrational need for a blue firebender like herself was about to consume him. He hated not being good enough._

_Still, the ship was leaving and he swung the sack of his belongings over his shoulder, preparing to board and face whatever lay in store for him._

_"How was your year?" Azula's voice was low and almost laced with exhaustion if Kirei did not know her better. Or maybe it was his extensive knowledge of the Fire Princess that afforded him this little insight under the stoic shell she kept about her at all times._

_"Same as any other year mother," he answered. He wanted sorely to ask her what was bothering her, but was conflicted with how she might respond to a perceived show of pity. His concern won out and he added in a hush, "How are you feeling?"_

_"Tired."_

_The confession stunned him into speechlessness. Never had the proud Royal admitted to feeling any form of anything that could be thought of as a sign of weakness. Kirei had heard the whispers in the halls and the gossip of the Fire Lady and her maids about the ghosts haunting that mind of his mother. He worried about her lapses into the past where Ozai still reigned over her actions and spurred her into fits of panic or self-deprecation._

_"Mother," it was all he said. It was all he had to say. He moved to sit next to her on the small couch that adorned the common room they currently inhabited. Her arms moved to drape around him in a sort of half embrace. It was the most affectionate thing she had given him for quite a while so he made sure to cherish every little press of skin against clothing or slight pressure against his shoulder._

_"You are a good son. You probably despise me for all I have put you through. One day… no, it is better for you to not understand and place the blame on me."_

_Kirei did not know what to make of the cryptic words. His immediate response, elicited by a lifetime of training, was to leave it alone and not question further. It was always simpler that way._

_Kirei gazed down at the woman in the bed. He had married young, at least in his opinion, but had grown to love her despite it being a loveless marriage at the onset- arranged by his mother as a marital unification with a powerful new family rising in the southern portion of the island nation. Now, looking upon her, he could sense his heart begin to throb with a renewed vigor._

_Her brow was sweaty and the fine strands of charcoal hair clung in little streams of unruly locks across the dampness. Her eyes were closed and her breathing came evenly If not a little haggard. The sheets rustled slightly with the rise and fall of her chest and slightly bulging belly. He placed a hand gently across her cheek, moving it to sweep the rebel little hairs into their proper places, fanning across the gossamer pillows in the pattern of an ornate curtain. In her arms, also fast asleep, was the most magnificent creature he had ever seen. Kirei sat down with an amount of finesse that he had not been aware he was capable of; he held no intentions of waking either his wife or newborn daughter and shattering the perfect nature of the moment. He felt a pang of sadness at the thought that he might never have this again. Quickly it was overcome by the hopefulness of an eager first-time father mulling over the prospects of the future. He had initially wanted a son, bragging about the little admiral he would raise and defeat imaginary armies with. His wife had laughed with her beautiful soprano, little tinkling bells in each exhaled pronunciation of happiness. She had joked with him, admonishing him for his boisterous declarations lest the Spirits choose to bestow a daughter on him instead. At first, he had been a little adverse to the notion, seeing how difficult society could be to those of the opposite sex, but now, looking at the lovely round cheeks so full of life and promise, he could not help but smile. _

_"She will have your eyes," his face turned to take in the content gaze of his beloved; dark chocolate so that her pupils were hardly discernible in the lack of contrast. "You children of Agni always have the dominant genes that I fear she will retain nothing of me."_

_"She will have your spirit and that is more than any outside appearance counts for," Kirei leaned over to press a gentle kiss on her forehead. She tasted slightly of salt._

_"Our spirits. You give yourself too little credit Kirei."_

_"Yes, ours."_

_Kirei stood beside a memorial in the early morning light. The neat writing on the marble face of the stone sticking out of the ground behind the ornate little urn of ash was still hidden in the shade of the dawn. He glanced at the perfect, cloudless sky and it infuriated him. If it had rained, at least he would have felt some semblance of retribution in the form of the elements. He wanted some form of physical representation of his feelings. Grief and anger tore at him as the sky brightened into an array of blues and the birds flew along chirping away as though nothing had changed. And, as far as they knew, nothing had. For Kirei, it was as if the entire world had stopped and come crashing down over his head. The throbbing would not go away, the insomnia clung to his bones and drooped his eyelids in purple half-moons, even the unruliness of his usually pristine hair brought unrestrained irritation to him. _

_"Kirei," a voice called from somewhere in front of him. He pointedly ignored it and kept his eyes trained on the gravestone as if staring at it would cause it to split in two and erase all of the events that led to its necessity._

_"Kirei, you're daughter is crying. She wants her father," the persistence of the person who was calling for him only served to boil his torrid blood. His teeth clenched, the gum of his cheek caught between the crushing molars until he could taste his own blood._

_"Ki-"_

_"I want nothing to do with that thing!" he screamed, his hands moving up to clamp over his ears as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. "It killed her!"_

_"Stop being overdramatic," the coolness and apathy were lost on the sniffling wreck that was the Fire Prince. He did not wish to hear the calls of the living; to return to them meant leaving her, the one that he had loved for the past fourteen years. And what had it all been for? It had been ended so swiftly and cruelly by the thing that he had once thought of as a miracle bestowed upon his unworthy life by the benevolent Spirits above._

_"I want nothing to do with it. I would trade the life of that abomination if I could get her back. It's all the fault of that… that… monster!"_

_He knew that the word was a mistake as soon as it left his lips. His eyes lashed up in time to see the blind fury that crossed the metallic eyes of Princess Azula a moment before the blast of fire caught him full force in the chest. Kirei was blown clear across the little patch of grass until he hit the trunk of a nearby tree, leaving a trail of charred and uprooted greenery in his wake._

_"You will hold your tongue if such garbage is all that will come from it. It was not the child's intentions for the birth to have had such unforeseeable consequences. Now you will come here and take her in your arms and protect her so that it is not both that you lose," Azula held out the whimpering bundle of cloth and wriggling digits._

_Kirei felt a sick feeling in his stomach, nausea rising in his throat until it threatened to spill forth in a torrent of what was left of the meager breakfast he had eaten. Just looking at the parasite that had gained life by taking the one most precious to him, especially with the gravestone sitting just before it, was too much._

_"I want nothing to do with it," he reiterated. "Do what you will with it, but do not come near me for I cannot promise its survival in close proximity to me."_

_With that he stalked away, down the slope covered in miniature rectangle patches reserved for the dead. Behind him he could almost see the disapproval etched on his mother's face, but he could not bring himself to care. His wife had been killed, murdered, and it was all _his _fault. True, the child had been the cause, but it was made from his seed. It had come from him. He had spawned the vial creature that had stolen his happiness. _

Kirei's words faded into stillness. His eyes had drifted shut at some point in the exchange, but Korra could not remember the action taking place. Her own eyes were wider than saucers; a milky glaze had set over them as tears threatened to spill out. Katara's hand was holding her so hard that she was sure imprints would be left in the skin for a while after that afternoon.

"My wife had died only a few days after the birth. Her body had been weakened by the pregnancy and the immune response failed to extinguish the viral infection that took her. I… I knew that it was irrational to place her death on my daughter, but I was still inexperienced in the world even at that age. Everything had gone so right for so long that I had forgotten what despair was and-"

Korra wanted to console the distraught man, her compassionate side craving to alleviate some of the tremendous weight he must have been carrying for all of those years; her physical response, however, was something closer to an animalistic lunge at his throat. Her hands nearly connected too, only stopped by the wall of ice erected spontaneously in between her and Kirei's astounded face. Dark fingertips pressed against the steamy barrier, already melting on the surface in the warm room. She could not have explained where the urge had come from; something dark within her curled up and snarled in frustration and unbridled contempt, seeking to find the face of the man again so she could dig the fingernails now embedded into the sheet of ice into pliable flesh and sinew. Instead, she dug her knees into the table, propelling her fingers further into the ice with the balls of her feet pressed against the sleek wood for support.

"Korra, calm yourself," Katara's voice rang out, violently shaking the Avatar out of her revelry with a violent snap. Her nails left the surface of the latticed water molecules, returning with the rest of her hands to her sides. She stepped back a few feet, ensuring that she had enough room to breathe and regain her control before she rushed the Fire National once the wall was expelled. Katara, apparently not trusting her yet, kept it up as a precaution.

"I- I am so sorry," she forced out. The swirling vortex inside of the shadow growled at the words, telling her in urgent whispers that the man- distorted by the optical illusions caused by the concave and convex rivulets of his shield- deserved everything she gave him. The rational part, gradually reasserting itself in her head, gained her speech cortex and added, "I don't know what came over me."

"It is not your fault. I too realize that it was the first in a series of grievous mistakes I have committed against Kaji," there was a short pause where Kirei's dry sobs were muffled by his ornate sleeve. Then he said the name again as one would say the name of the most fragile flower or the last remaining wonder on the planet. "We did not even name her. My wife was too far gone by that time; she wasn't even coherent enough to hold her, and I… well, by now it is not necessary to mention my reasons."

"Azula," Korra murmured. Kirei's visage nodded, extending his doppelganger's forehead to alien proportions and then bringing it back to its original size.

"She named her after the unbridled flame; the flame of destruction and glory and beauty; the flame that cannot be quelled by anything."

Korra couldn't keep from pulling up the corners of her mouth in a secretive smile at how fitting the name was. Azula had indeed been a visionary as pertaining to the child's future. Thinking of the constant fire raging behind the golden irises and nearly reptilian pupils sent chills down the Avatar's spine; her mental visualization ending as the ice clattered back to the ground with the light tinkling of shattering glass before it liquefied and returned to the hip pouch Katara always carried around with her.

"It was almost eight years since I saw her again," Kirei continued.

_Kirei's eyes remained closed and his meditation pose never shifted at the approach of the strangers at the door to the small villa that he had taken up residence in. His status had afforded him quite the small fortune from his mother so he had been able to afford it easily; tucked away in the deep mountains where he could be left in peace, but not too isolated as to make any goods he found necessary unattainable. The small village a mile or so down the hunting trail afforded the perfect marketplace and he had stopped requiring anything past food, water, and the occasional tool to fix some part of the estate a few years ago. The townspeople called him the Wandering Spirit of the Mountain. In a way, they were right; he no longer felt any sort of connection with the living and liked to think of himself as a sort of ghost trapped within a bundle of flesh and bone. The fact that someone had come here was very strange in itself as the rumors usually kept most curious travelers far away._

_A sharp rap on the door indicated that whoever his mystery guest was, they were at least polite enough to not simply barge in uninvited. A resounding crash proved his observation wrong and he was forced out of his soothing exercises as the back door was also blown off its hinges and sent skidding over the edge of the cliff that the house was built on. Kirei collected himself, tugging at the plain beige robes tied around his body with a sturdy rope to futilely remove any creases, and turned to look upon the intruder. Smoke was billowing from the opening in the wall where most of his doorway had also been eradicated. The plaster chips flew away on the breeze rushing through the mountain pass just as the ashes did until there was nothing left but the rough wooden skeleton._

_"Very good my dear. You are improving at quite the impressive rate; at this rate you will be giving me a run for my money," Kirei cringed at the familiar speaker. He briefly considered making a run for the tree line just a couple of yards away but forgot the notion just as quickly. The last thing he wanted was a forest fire raging beyond containment because he decided not to face his mother and whatever it was she wanted from him._

_Instead of the stringent, pale face and peppered hair of the Fire Princess, however, the first person to greet Kirei by stepping out of the smoky veil was a young girl. She was a practical clone of the few pictures Kirei had ever seen of Azula as a young girl, complete with dark locks pulled back in a topknot with her bangs cupping her face and the mischievous dark smirk adorning her smug face. The petite hands were tucked behind the child's back as though she were a general surveying the damage her men had wrought upon a conquered land and she completed the picture with a confident strut that matched that of a trained soldier._

_"Kirei, how good it is to see you after all of these years. It seems that you have been able to find a way of bringing shame to my name in a manner beyond even my imagination. You should be proud of yourself as I am not easily left astounded," Azula finally came out of the wreckage of his quaint little house. The crackle of wood was now audible from inside as the flames began to devour everything in their path. Kirei did not really possess anything of importance to him, so his eyes only briefly skirted to the dying building before returning to the elder woman._

_"Mother," Kirei nodded in acknowledgement. "I am also surprised at you. I always thought that child arsonists were not really your thing after your personal experiences."_

_Azula's hard jaw clenched slightly. In her old age, she had begun to let more and more of her emotions show- much to Kirei's advantage. His small moment of victory was short-lived when a blue fireball of considerable size was hurled at his feet, bursting into small torpedoes of flame in every direction. A portion of his attire caught ablaze causing him to hop around like a complete fool, trying to put it out with minimal damage to his bare legs. In the end, he was able to smother it, only to find a gaping hole running up the side of his outer right thigh and a slipper missing- possibly thrown over the ledge along with his door and wall._

_"You shouldn't speak to a princess like that. Peasants should know their place," the pipsqueak threatened, her deep voice a bit abnormal for her age and gender. Still, its impact was greatly enhanced by the conjuring of another ball of blue fire above her outstretched palm._

_"Kaji, behave yourself. That temper is why you are still having difficulty with your lightening," Azula chastised lightly. The little girl put out the flames and looked down at her feet, a blush of shame spreading across her tiny face. "And besides, this man is far from a regular commoner."_

_"Yeah kid," Kirei joked. "Learn to lighten up a bit; she is my mother after all." _

_The child's head snapped up, giving him an appraising look before her large eyes shrank into a half-lidded look of utter disdain and a hint of disappointment. Her head turned to look at her companion and mentor. Sticking a thumb in Kirei's direction she questioned, "Are you sure we came to the right place? He can't be of Agni's blood," then whispered, "He doesn't even look like he has bathed in a decade."_

_"Hey!" the nonbender cried out. He did not like being insulted by some snobbish brat that his mother had decided to take under her wing, no matter how impressive said brat's firebending was. "I am of royal blood and deserve some respect. And I have bathed within this decade thank you very much."_

_"Oh, stop your antics Kirei. And as for you Kaji, be respectful to the man. He is your father after all."_

_The words were like a ton of bricks pushed right into his diaphragm. _Father?_ It was strange to even think of the word. He had nearly forgotten all about the child he had left behind and the life he had forsaken in the wake of the tragedy that had befallen him. Now, looking at the eight-year-old glaring at him, he felt a wave of something bitter push itself up his trachea until it settled into the groove of his larynx. His knees seemed to have lost all semblance of support, succumbing to gravity until the grassy ground broke his descent. His hands were shaking violently as he stretched them out toward the girl who was looking upon him with great confusion. Her thin, perfect eyebrows were high on her light little forehead, crinkling the usually soft brow._

_"M-my," he choked on the syllables as though he was being drowned. "Daughter."_

_The tears came unbidden. His vision of the child blurred until there were only shades of color to represent her body. Control of his arms returned and he quickly brushed away the waterfalls of salt water so that he could reassure himself that she was not a mirage or some specter come for revenge upon him. He cried out in delight at her continued presence, but it was suddenly not enough to simply look upon her anymore. He shuffled on his knees until he was close enough to pull her into a tight embrace. Her back stiffened at the unexpected proximity to him, her mouth drawing into a tight line at the stench of the man enveloping her in his arms. Her tiny arms strained against his chest, warm underneath the thinning fabric of his peasant's clothing. Kaji's childish brain could not really compute why she hated the feeling of the man's crushing embrace, but she knew that if she stayed there, she would not be able to quell the tears and crying was something she had no intention of doing under the scrutiny of this stranger._

_"Please get off of me," she said, straining to keep her voice level and calm. She had decided to resort to words once it had become apparent that her strength was not enough to dislodge him and she did not think it prudent to char him with Azula's explicit orders against it._

_Kirei's eyes- having been shut tight and streaming his own unhindered tears- snapped open at the muffled protest to his display of affection. His hands slackened from their perch around his biceps. It marveled him how big his daughter was and yet how she could still be cradled in his arms with the same ease as when she had been a babe. Not that he had coddled her. The pang of guilt hit his heart; there was no worse feeling in the entire spectrum of human emotion. Kirei pulled away, defeated, gazing longingly at the child he had discarded so long ago. His mistake was barren and bleeding with each heartbeat, but he could not take back the decisions of his youth any more than he could fill the empty years away from the fragile, beautiful girl in front of him with the fatherly love she had deserved and never gotten._

_"I-" he could barely speak. "I am so sorry."_

_Kaji had seen many people bow to the floor before the presence of Princess Azula in the past- and herself by default since she rarely had left the older woman's side. Therefore, it was peculiar that, when this man fell to the floor groveling before her feet, she felt that there was something inherently wrong about it. Her hand instinctively reached out to touch his shaking shoulder, stopping short when she realized what it was that she was doing. Azula would have expected absolute control of one's emotions and consoling the wretch below her was going against all she had been taught. Still, Kaji had never been faced with a member of her immediate family before- except for the Fire Princess who had never shown any sort of sadness except for when she thought Kaji wasn't looking. The unprecedented situation caused Kaji to freeze, hand still outstretched into the void between her body and the body of the man who had created her._

_"Please, please, please," it was a mantra that Kirei's lips kept formulating and his breath kept carrying outward to her ears. Kirei did not know whether the others heard, his own mind too loud to take in anything exterior, hoping only that Kaji's answer would be anything but a 'no.' _

_"Get off of the ground, Kirei," Azula's usual disapproving tone filtered in among the haze. For a moment, the nonbender felt the petulance of a small child, felt the urge to throw a tantrum, felt the need to blame her for all of his follies. He wanted to scream at her, to tell her that she should have been a better mother so that he would have been a good father- hell, a father at all would have been more than he had become. But he did not; he stayed with his face buried in the tufts of grass and earthen dust until a small voice called to him._

_"Please get up."_

_Kirei's head arched into his back, his spine struggling with the strain of supporting his head until his arms moved in a position that better allowed for more support of his upper body. Kaji's eyes relayed her surprise in the fact that she had spoken. The reddening of her cheeks again showed her utter embarrassment and she turned away from both adults to compose herself. Kirei couldn't hold in the horrible, wonderful desire to take her into his arms again, to show her that he was here now and, though it would not- could not- make up for everything, it was a start. He started forward, clumsy and rushed, to attain the proximity he so wished for. She was so close… and then she wasn't. Kaji had seen Kirei's advance from the corner of her golden eye, and so, had chosen to move away from him with as much haste as she could afford without seeming frightened. By the hammering of her heart against her ribcage, she was inclined to believe that fear was a very possible description to her present state of mind._

_"D-don't," she hated the shakiness in her voice as she said it._

_Kirei ceased all movement. He did not even breathe, overreacting to Kaji's command by stopping in all that he was doing. His mind worked against him, pulling into itself as the oxygen supply shortened and small black fuzz appeared in the periphery of his vision. _"Don't."_ It was the smallest little thing and it was the death of him._

_"I hate having to break up this… joyous reunion," Azula cut in, much to Kaji's relief and Kirei's dismay, "but we came here with a purpose in mind. Did you forget already, my child?"_

_Kaji shook her head vigorously, feeling as though she had been slapped across the face. She never forgot the objectives Azula gave her. They were her treasures, each one that had been completed stashed away in the recesses of her heart, providing the warm glow of success, and those she had yet to complete burning tiny holes in the pit of her stomach in anticipation for their eventual fulfillment._

_"Good. Well then, tell your father what you wish to say."_

_Kirei glared at the woman standing and watching his deterioration, despising how her lips held the slight upturn of her signature smirk. Whatever she wanted, he was loath to give it to her and she knew it. That was why he had ignored all of the letters, burning them in their sealed envelopes, and run as far as his legs and money had taken him. But she held the trump card, his daughter, and he could not deny the child anything now that she was finally back within reach. She had taken so much of her phenotype from his dominant blood, but he still felt her mother's essence somewhere deep inside. It might have just been fanciful thinking, but it was a bind stronger than steel._

_"Will you come back with us?" Kaji's voice squeaked a bit as she tried to hide her shyness with feigned strength and surety. _

_Kirei was backed into a corner. He did not want to go and become another pawn for Azula to play with as only she knew how, but now that he had seen his child with his own two eyes, he knew that he could not leave her._

_"Yes," his head hung in defeat. "I will come."_

_As they walked down the decrepit trail leading away from Kirei's home for more years than he wanted to count, he tried to forget the feelings of loss and grief that rained down on him. Kaji had run on ahead as children her age were wont to do, giddily chasing after the bugs and lizards that had the unfortunate fate to cross her path. Kirei took the opportunity to grab a hold of his mother's forearm and pull her back from her leisurely stride. Azula looked back at him with a raised eyebrow._

_"What are you playing at?" Kirei growled. "What are you going to do with me? With her?"_

_"Calm yourself Kirei," Azula brushed off his hand as though it were nothing, moving against his thumb with a jolting pull so that her wrist easily broke out of his hold. "The girl needs to know her father. It is only healthy… and I was done waiting for you to come crawling out of the hole you dug for yourself."_

_"You still haven't answered my questions."_

_"I plan on making her the strongest firebender the world has ever seen. And you were the only hindrance she had in that respect. She needed to know you existed and what kind of a man you were… are."_

_"I don't believe you."_

_She chuckled and turned away from him, continuing to make her way down to slope. Her voice called behind her, reaching his ears but not having the volume to reach Kaji's, saying, "You don't have to. You just have to stay close to her."_

Kirei stopped talking again. Korra and Katara waited with baited breath, both aware of the other's increased heartbeat through their entwined hands. Korra wanted to urge the man on, to have him reveal more of his story so that the shadows surrounding Kaji's childhood were lifted, but she held her tongue and waited for him to find his next train of thought. It did not take long; Kirei sank further into his chair, his weight seemingly more than his back could support any longer.

"It was not until a while after that meeting that I began to realize that my good intentions would not be enough to save my daughter from the destiny her grandmother had set before her. Kaji… she always held the potential to do great things, but her definition was always polar to mine and we drifted against each other. I finally began to understand Azula's purpose in having my presence there. I was to be Kaji's final test; if she chose me over Azula, then she would have failed in her objective, but if she chose my mother… then Azula had the perfect, loyal soldier who would stop at nothing to complete the task set forth by her master."

His fist hit the table with a bang that caused Korra, already tensed, to jump slightly out of the chair under her. Kirei's voice was laced with anger and something akin to guilt, though it was more of a guilt displayed by a bystander than an actual participant in the unwinding of Kaji's gradual descent into her family's power ploy.

"She created the monster inside of Kaji. She instilled the need to be powerful and flawless, but it was I who let it happen. I was too late and by the time that I became a part of Kaji's life, she had already begun to think of Azula as her God. What was I in the wake of her savior and caregiver for all of the years that I had been gone? Nothing. I created Kaji's inner monster. It was me."

_Despite Kirei's best efforts to reign in his daughter's destructive temperaments and her relative lack of sympathy for anything, he was resigned to watch Kaji ignore his lessons and become the incarnation of Azula. The fourteen-year-old had finished most of her schooling, set on graduating top of her class from the Academy for Girls three years ahead of those in her age group. He was overwhelmingly proud of her, but Kirei couldn't hide the pang of sadness he felt when he saw that Kaji had made no friends and treated the girls who followed her around as nothing but servants. She espoused no interest in morals and spent most of her afternoons with her grandmother training, or pointedly ignoring anything he said. _

_On the particular afternoon, he had expertly executed an ambush tactic upon his mother, determined to confront her on Kaji's lack of discipline in her pyrotechnic tendencies. He had received a letter from the school a few days prior- just before the start of the holidays- that his daughter was being held in questioning over the burning of a 'social rival's' clothing and luggage. The poor girl had had nothing left of her possessions, to the point of being forced into borrowing undergarments from the charity reserve._

_"Did you hear what she did?" he asked, his temper flaring at the questioning look he was given in return. "She burned EVERYTHING! That girl's parents are calling for her expulsion."_

_"As I recall, son," the word was said with such sarcasm that Kirei was taken aback. "She was only suspected of the arson. And I am sure that Kaji is more than qualified to get herself out of trouble."_

_"That is not the point!" Kirei tried again. "She is guilty and it is because you do not teach her any sort of ethics and she denounces the ones I try to instill in her… because of YOU."_

_"I am teaching her how the world works: that she can get away with anything as long as she has a reliable scapegoat and a clever, quick-witted mind."_

_"That is not the sort of thing I want Kaji reflecting," Kirei retorted. "I want her to become a person who will create a better world."_

_"She will create a better world," Azula's eyes had darkened dangerously. A hidden spark stirred in their darkened golden depths, almost amber, hiding the wells of whatever emotion was lurking just beneath the surface. "I have ensured it."_

_"She has to be taught to be a good person, not a good soldier, mother."_

_"What if I don't want to be a good person?" the new voice broke Kirei out of his tirade. He turned to see Kaji leaning against one of the columns that adorned the particular passageway within the Royal Palace. "What if I want to be something more."_

_Kirei gave a heavy sigh before turning to face the subject of his previous discussion, "You can be whatever it is you want to be, Kaji. But you have to be kind and think of others as well as yourself."_

_"Why?" she moved off of the stone to come and stand before him, the defiance in her eyes shown brilliantly in the afternoon glaze. "They don't care about me so why should I care about them. In the pursuit of my own goals and happiness, what do the dreams of anyone else matter at all?"_

_Kirei hesitated in replying. The paradox of being considerate and keeping true to your own desires was a complicated subject and he wanted to answer Kaji honestly. "You have to do what is right for you… but you cannot do anything that will cause harm to another. It is wrong to take away another's right to his or her own future."_

_"Oh, like you haven't done that before," Kaji snapped. "You decided to just up and leave without a thought as to what it would do to me because you were selfish. And I didn't blame you for it because I knew that it was human nature to run away from any form of pain and danger, but if you're going to be all high and mighty and tell me that I'm wrong, then I have an issue with that."_

_"Kaji-"_

_"No, you don't get to tell me what to do. You called me a monster when I wasn't even a month old. Well, soon you will see just how much of a monster I can be," her feet carried her away from Kirei's stupefied form, leaving him to stare at her retreating for, followed by the triumphant form of his mother, with his mouth hanging open._

"Azula died a few months after that. It was sudden and unexpected and I think that, over anything else, it broke Kaji to such a degree that she became irreparable. Without her grandmother's influence, I thought I would be able to finally get through to her, but I was wrong. She left the Fire Nation in search of a way to complete her last task, set upon her by Azula, and I lost track of her. She was like a ghost… even rumor did not follow her," Kirei finished. "I returned to my isolation, more lost than I was the first time. It was only after your letter reached me, Master Katara, that I heard of her. I can't believe I repeated the same mistake twice."

Kirei quieted. His eyes bore into the desk before him. His lips moved and Korra could only read the unspoken words on them, "My fault."

She wanted to say that it was not, but he did bear much of the responsibility. Nearly as much as Azula did. She hated his words; calling Kaji a monster when that was only a convenient mirage he had erected to hide the fact that she was a person who had been ruined by him. It was unfair to call her anything worse than human in her actions; she was only striving to fulfill the debt she felt she owed Azula for caring for her when no one else would.

"I know it is a lot to take in Korra," Master Katara whispered in her ear. "But there is still my tale to tell and I believe it will not be prudent to keep it from you any longer."

Louder she said to Kirei, "Your chambers have been set up in the upper floors of the building. You can ask my son for instructions to them. I apologize for dismissing you after all you have shared with us, but my pupil and I have one more topic to discuss and I require privacy."

"Of course," Kirei stood and made his way to the door as would a specter. His hand on the already twisted knob, he turned toward them once more, eyes imploringly searching to meet with the Avatar's. "I know it is unfair of me to ask this of you, but please stop her. I know that she is my daughter and it is I, as much as Azula, who made her into the… person… that she is, but I have never had the power to nullify her destruction. I am completely loyal to you and the White Lotus and will aid you in all ways I can to take her down, even if it means the loss of her life or my own."

The words sank into Korra's brain with the slowness of honey, though not nearly as sweet. She gasped softly at how easily Kirei spoke of Kaji's death, as though her fate was already sealed with no alternative. Korra could not remember the last time she had felt the same amount of pity and hatred toward someone; her eyes bore into the back of the disappearing Fire National as if she could instill the guilt he should have felt in making such a statement. Had it not been for Katara's hand holding her back, Korra might have bolted from her seat and gone after him, ready to slam him into the nearest wall and demand to know how he could speak of his child's demise with such cool complacency.

"Korra," Katara's voice reached her in the depths of her turbulent inner fires- Korra had never felt more like a firebender than at that moment. "It is time that I unveil my own part in this fiasco. I must ask you to listen and refrain from any judgment until the end. I know it will come as a shock, and most certainly it will hurt you, but please remember that I am as much a flawed human being as the rest of them."

Korra pushed away her previous bitterness to clear her head in anticipation for her master's words. Whatever it was that she was about to be told, it had been a well-guarded secret for more years than she had been alive; and if it had such a profound effect on the strongest person she knew, then it must have been of a very heavy impact. So she steeled her nerves and braced for the blow.

**P.S: Longer right. Well, I will not keep you lovely people any longer. Except for a small advertisement: See that little button below that says "Review"? Click it and write me something. It can be anything: long, short, nonsense, complete sense, flames, clouds, unicorns, whatever! Just write something and I will respond with gratitude and maybe a new chapter soon. Reviews do divert my mind from AP classes to fanfiction, despite my trend... I PROMISE! So click that button and let me know what you think. Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes, daylight saving is kicking my ass.**


	29. Past Mirages (Part II)

**A/N: Another update, part two! I expected this to be up way sooner, but it became soooooo long and I didn't feel as bad about it. Well, that is all I suppose, nothing new. Enjoy and Review! I love to read them, they are like drugs to me (not that I really know what drugs feel like, but there are detailed descriptions in my AP Bio book that pretty much match the euphoria produced by reviews). Sorry for any grammar mistakes but I checked this at like, midnight and I have no brain at that time.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"She created the monster inside of Kaji. She instilled the need to be powerful and flawless, but it was I who let it happen. I was too late and by the time that I became a part of Kaji's life, she had already begun to think of Azula as her God. What was I in the wake of her savior and caregiver for all of the years that I had been gone? Nothing. I created Kaji's inner monster. It was me."

"I know it is unfair of me to ask this of you, but please stop her. I know that she is my daughter and it is I, as much as Azula, who made her into the… person… that she is, but I have never had the power to nullify her destruction. I am completely loyal to you and the White Lotus and will aid you in all ways I can to take her down, even if it means the loss of her life or my own."

"Korra," Katara's voice reached her in the depths of her turbulent inner fires- Korra had never felt more like a firebender than at that moment. "It is time that I unveil my own part in this fiasco. I must ask you to listen and refrain from any judgment until the end. I know it will come as a shock, and most certainly it will hurt you, but please remember that I am as much a flawed human being as the rest of them."

"We were so young then. We had thought that we were mature beyond our years because of the amount of pain and grief we had all experienced within ourselves and the places we had visited. I had always known that Aang had held affections for me… no, that is not the right way to start this," Katara retracted her words.

"There is little I can tell you about our escapades during the war that you do not already know, so I will start with what happened after," Katara began anew.

"_I know that Zuko asked you to do this Katara, but I don't think that it is the best idea," Aang tried to placate the determined waterbender as she marched down the steps of Omashu. _

_They had recently been travelling all over the Earth Kingdom with the Harmony Restoration Effort, attempting to assuage the fears and tensions that were overflowing between the receding colonies of the Fire Nation and the continent that was retaking them, but work had been swept aside for a much needed vacation. The entire scandal between Zuko and King Kuei over Yu Dao had exhausted them all and Aang made a straight course for the old Earth Kingdom city as soon as he had been able to get Appa off of the ground and away from his Fan Club. The relief in Katara's eyes was evident the moment the screams were overtaken by the rush of air roaring in their ears. He would have never admitted it, but having the waterbender jealous over him made him feel a welcome warmth in the pit of his stomach. Katara herself was just happy to finally not have to fight for the affections of her… boyfriend. She had come to be more comfortable with Aang's affections toward her and no longer felt the awkwardness that came from viewing him as more of a brother, but there was still an elusive barrier between them. The only difference about it now was that is felt like cellophane instead of stone. She tried not to think about it too much and focused on enjoying the ride to the place where they would spend a few days in stillness and tranquility without the need to hide who they were for a moment of peace._

_As it was, the vacation was over before it even had a chance to start as a royal messenger hawk with a black container strapped to its back came sailing in through the window of Katara's room the very morning after their arrival. Katara had insisted upon separate chambers much to Aang's chagrin, but the boy was good-natured and trusted his beautiful waterbender enough to not question her. Katara's azure eyes scanned the neat script, recognizing it as Zuko's penmanship almost immediately._

Dear Katara,

I had this sent to you because you are the only one who understands. You were the only one who was there on the evening of the Agni Kai between me and my sister.

_Katara paused. She did not like where he was going with this. Azula had been a taboo topic since her confinement in the mental facility over two years ago. For Zuko to suddenly mention her at that moment was unexpected and unwanted. Katara hated to admit it, but she still had nightmares about the fallen prodigy. She could see those cool golden eyes looking right through her and analyzing her very soul. The shudder that came upon her now could not be attributed to the breeze. _Azula, _she thought the name. Where before there had only been fear and contempt for the girl, only a few months younger than herself, now Katara felt that her feelings majorly consisted of pity. She hated to recall the utter despair with which the firebender had cried after she had been chained to the grate by Katara's nimble hands. She had been thoroughly broken apart; something Katara still could not come to terms with. Azula had always been the strong one, the one who had a plan, the one who was the cunning monster that embodied Ozai's will. Seeing her vulnerable had shattered Katara's entire image of the mighty warrior, replacing it with a more realistic view of the girl. Katara realized that her fingers had dug into the thin parchment in her reminiscing, crumpling the note slightly at the edges. Her eyes moved back to the letter to continue reading._

I also know that I can trust you with the request I am about to make. I hate to ask another favor of you when you have already done so much for me, but it is my firm belief that you are the only one who will be able to accomplish my will.

_Katara rolled her eyes at the elongated, formal speech. Zuko had always had a way of lengthening any request when he was nervous. Becoming Fire Lord had not made him any less predictable._

My father may be the only person who has information on my mother's whereabouts. I need to find her, especially in this time of upheaval and personal conflict. Azula may be the key to convincing him to give me what I seek. I went to visit her a few days past and she proclaimed that she too held a desire to find our mother, but when I returned to her the following morning- in preparation to escort her to my father- she…

_A few words were blotted out with so much ink as to make them impossible to discern. Katara's eyebrows had furrowed at Zuko's mention of his father to Azula. She wanted to smack him for his insensitivity; Azula was certain to be mortified by the prospect of facing the man she had thought of as a God. The firebender would have believed that her mental break and her defeat were crimes and worse, failures, punishable by the vilest fate her insanity could imagine for her. The lines following only served to solidify Katara's assessment._

She was in one of her more aggressive moods. She would not cooperate at all and we had to subdue her before she hurt anyone or herself. I need her to be well again Katara. I know that you hold no love for my sister and I do not blame you, but if there is even a chance that she can convince Father to tell me where I can find… I just need you to consider it. Please.

Zuko

_Katara folded up the paper and tapped it thoughtfully against her shoulder. She was wearing some comfortable blue robes that had been placed in her closet, courtesy of King Boomi's staff, and the fabric caressed her skin with each impact from the paper. Her mind screamed at her to decline. She knew that she had once said that she would never abandon anyone in need of her help, yet there had to be a point where she drew the line. At least that was what she was telling herself to quiet the unsettling aura that had cloaked her body. She was only sixteen, seventeen soon though that hardly meant anything. She had seen, with her own eyes, the destruction wrought by the Fire Princess. To 'cure' Azula of her madness was sure to have unforeseen side effects that Zuko and the rest of the world were sure to find undesirable. Resurrecting Ozai's most adept fighter was not any sort of solution. But Katara could not help the image of Azula, bawling on the floor as she spewed an inferno of blue fire from her mouth, hit a nerve in her conscience. Was she so cruel as to say that the fire prodigy had deserved her fate? Azula was as much a victim of the war as anyone, even if she had become a symbol of all that the war had stood for. And even if Katara could forget about the desolation behind those golden irises, could she really deny Zuko the one shot he had at locating Ursa? How many years had it been since either of them had seen their mothers? At least he still had a chance of seeing his again. If Katara was afforded that opportunity, she knew that she too would do everything in her power to grasp it._

_Mind made up, Katara had immediately spoken to Aang about the necessary preparations for her departure to the Fire Nation. He, of course, had been reluctant in allowing her to come face-to-face with his potential murderer and the girl who had nearly destroyed the entire Earth Kingdom- most certainly she had planned to. Still, when Katara got that look in her eyes, he knew that it was a futile attempt. He had to admit that the prospect of aiding Azula brought both fear and catharsis to him- his Air Nomad teachings spurring him to treat her with compassion if nothing else- so any argument against Katara's actions would have been half-hearted and promptly shot down anyway._

"I will skip the reception. Zuko was… well, he was many things, but grateful would be the most forthcoming description," Katara chuckled before turning serious once more. "When I got to the hospital, I was somewhat taken aback by what I found there."

Korra nodded, only wishing for her mentor to go on. She had never known that Katara had held a part in reasserting Azula's sanity, only that the Princess had eventually made enough of a recovery to become a renowned politician and general for the Fire Nation in her later years. Hearing it now, the miraculous recovery of the firebender's intellect seemed more credible.

_The first thing Katara noticed about the building, once they were inside of its pallid walls, was that it was cold. Not the cold she had grown up in, where a good coat and gradual acclimatization were ample shields against the biting chill; this cold was one of a moratorium. Katara rubbed her hands over her shoulders, feeling the gooseflesh even past the jacket she had been given upon entry. She really did not think the peach color suited her, but it was either that or sitting for however long she would be there with her teeth chattering. The staff, comprised mostly of doctors and nurses with a smattering of janitorial members, made sure to put on bright, wide smiles as she and her escort made their way down into the depths of the 'hospital.' The strain behind the forced gesture was lost on the young girl at that first visit, but would become apparent in the subsequent ones._

_The second thing Katara took notice of was the fact that the corridor professed to contain the Fire Princess, or former one as Zuko had her stripped of title after the Agni Kai, was located at the very center of the lowest story of the building. The fact that Katara had arrived on the ground floor made it obvious on the first descending stairwell, that Azula was being held in one of the subterranean levels. The lack of windows had made it necessary for all light to be artificial; compiled with the identity of the prisoner, it was to be expected that each of the torch holsters were filled with crystals instead of flames. Katara had been, for some strange reason she did not care to contemplate, against the removal of Azula's bending along with Aang. Now that she was about to face the girl who had haunted them all for the past two years, she was not so sure that her position had been the best idea._

"_Miss Katara," the guard in front of her bowed. "The room is around the corner. As is customary, I need to inform you of a few principle procedures before you are allowed to see the pri- patient."_

_The mistaken word was hastily covered up. Katara made to forget it, but the queasiness in her stomach was back in full and her knees felt weak. Whatever was lurking just beyond her vision was not something she was keen on facing. The shadows playing along the plastered walls were larger somehow, more menacing than a moment ago. Still, she gathered all of the bravery she had held in reserve for this confrontation, and nodded her head._

"_The guard changes every four hours but there will always be someone outside should you need them. There is a thermostat within the cell that is sensitive to the slightest increase in temperature. If there is any firebending on the part of the resident, we will be alerted and will respond with haste. There is a division along the center of the room, keeping the patient barred from you and she has been restrained for the safety of herself and anyone in her presence so there should be no danger. When you wish to come out, simply bang on the door and voice your wishes."_

_Katara took in all of the information and used it as a virtual lifesaver. Having the knowledge that she was not to be completely alone was a comfort, if only a small one. She had made the request to be allowed to work undisturbed with the troubled girl, therefore any sort of apprehension with her situation could only be blamed on her. Still, Katara knew the delicacy with which such things had to be handled. Azula had to open herself to her, and that would be hard enough without the firebender feeling ambushed by a full room._

"_Finally, Miss," the guard said with emphasis. "There can be no physical contact with the prisoner. She is still very unstable and the unpredictability of her aggressive mood swings makes this measure necessary."_

_Katara was now confused. She would not be able to apply her water healing if she could not touch the girl. Azula needed more than just consolation and therap; she needed curing. The man standing next to her seemed to sense her thoughts and clarified, "The rule may change in application to you, but for the first few visits, until we can fully observe the response you illicit, it would be best to follow it."_

_Katara found the logic behind the precaution. Azula was not exactly keen on the waterbender, nor was the vice versa any different. They turned the corner and the three men standing outside the massive steel door were informed of the new visitor. The eyes of the guards, to Katara's utter dismay, were tinged with fear. She realized that the shortness of shifts must have served the purpose of alleviating the stress that came with watching the Princess. After all, Azula had once been the sole most terrifying and exulted thing in the Fire Nation. One of the guards, his green eyes betraying his status as a foreigner, was the only one who held a defiant spark in his demeanor. Katara could only shake her head at their foolishness. There was no reason to fear ghosts, and Azula was scarcely better off than one, but the false confidence of the Earth Kingdomer was also foolish. Hubris only led to mistakes, and when it came to Azula, mistakes were not to be made._

_The exhale of air from the door opening was dank, stale, and had probably been the same air that had circulated the place since the time of its construction. Katara had to wait a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness that engulfed the small room that had been revealed to her. Two crystals were brought in and placed in braziers that looked like they had been used only sparingly. Katara questioned Zuko's methods of 'fixing' his sister when she wasn't even afforded light. The two men who had come in with her bowed and left her alone in the pale greenish glow of the precious rocks._

_At first, Katara did not even see the person she was looking for. As had been stated, there was a divide of bars running from one wall to the opposite one, parallel to the stone behind her and the other before her. Within the space allotted to the visitors was a small iron chair that had certainly seen better days. It was rusted and its legs warped to the point that it was sagging to the right. Katara quickly decided to take a seat on the floor or remain standing throughout her time there. On the side, apart from her, was a small cot chained to the wall and bolted to the floor. Katara wondered if Azula had ever even had the strength to lift it, but soon forgot about it when she finally caught sight of the reason she was there in the first place. What she had discarded in her initial scan of the premises as a grey pile of blankets clumped on the floor, revealed itself to be the huddled form of the former Princess in her worn straightjacket. Azula had been hunched in such a manner as to completely hide her face and feet, the only parts of her body that were not stuck inside of the constricting fabric. As she shifted into another position, hardly more comfortable on the cold, grey tile floor, Katara was finally able to discern a patch of unruly ebony hair. She gasped at the disheveled state of the feature Azula had kept so pristine throughout their encounters. What had once been defined by waves of sleek, soft strands was now dry and matted, clinging to a hidden face with unwashed oil and debris. The next thing that caught Katara and held her captive was a pair of eyes. These eyes, however, were alien to her. She had looked into them in defiance more times than she cared to count, always expecting to receive that infuriating smirk and cool confidence that radiated off of Azula so naturally as to be both alluring and devastating. Now, she could not even believe that she was looking at the same eyes. They were glazed, to the point that the young waterbender momentarily wondered if the girl sitting behind the bars had gone blind. The horror she felt in that small increment of time was unprecedented and strange, but Katara could not shake the relief she felt when the pupils zeroed in on her and a semblance of clairvoyance and recognition crossed the dirty visage of the former Royal. The relief was short-lived as a burning hatred began to spread over the pale features; the forehead crinkled in distaste, the nose drawing up in a show of revulsion, and the overall frown that drew the pale, chapped lips down was paired with an overall awkward series of shuffles that took Azula as far from Katara as her cell would allow._

"_Azula," Katara started. She mirrored the girl's expression of dislike, knowing it was far from professional, but not giving a damn. Even insane, the girl had an innate sense of which buttons to push to infuriate the waterbender._

"_Water peasant," the voice was cracked, barely above a whisper, and indicative of disuse. Whatever intended effect the threat was supposed to have, the weakness with which it was said demolished it. The frown only intensified._

_Katara sighed, reminding herself that she was meant to be helping the indignant resident of the room, not picking a fight when Azula obviously was unable to fully defend herself. Trying again, she moved up to stand just before the bars, "I am here to help you."_

_It was obviously the wrong thing to say, as Katara found out a second too late. The Fire Princess lunged at her, mouth ablaze with cerulean fire like the dragons in the stories that Katara had heard whilst in the southern continent. The waterbender barley had enough time to backpedal away from the miniature inferno when a high-pitched shriek left Azula's parted jaws and she crumpled to the floor. Katara could not understand what had happened to make the girl, now on the floor convulsing in pain, react in such a violent manner. Jets of what looked like steam, but that were cold instead of hot, obscured her view of the Princess, yet the screams were still audible until they diminished into wails and then nothingness. _

"_-ss, iss, Miss?" Katara was suddenly aware of the man kneeling beside her and calling out. She had not even noticed that she had fallen to the ground in her hasty retraction. "Are you alright?"_

"_Y-yes," a quick check confirmed that, despite the shock still coursing through her veins, Katara was unharmed. Looking over his shoulder, she noticed two of the men grappling with something, or someone, within the cage a few feet away. She was astounded when one of them drove his knee down and a crack resounded across the enclosed space, followed by a series of choking and gasping noises._

"_What are you doing?" she growled out. She was certainly not a fan of the girl, especially now that Azula had attacked her for no reason, but hurting her patient was not going to bring about any progress._

_A hand was placed on her arm, keeping her from regaining her feet and rushing through the cell door that lay open. The man gave her a sympathetic look before explaining, "It is protocol. If she struggles, we have orders to incapacitate her, directly from the Fire Lord."_

"_Well, as her new doctor, I am giving you orders to refrain from hurting her," Katara replied vehemently. Pushing away the man's hand, she picked herself up and moved toward the cell. Inside, she could not believe her eyes. The two guards had wrapped a heavy chain around the girl's frail shoulders and torso, keeping her flushed to the wall. Her legs had also been chained down to the floor, restricting anything beyond a small twist to either side. Perhaps the most disconcerting thing of all was the metal muzzle that had been strapped to Azula's head, leaving only her eyes and the top of her head exposed. It was obviously painful for her, discomfort evident in the winces and groans she let out whenever she tried to move._

"_Take it off," Katara did not know why she said it. If anything, she should have left the feral monster in her cage to rot for the rest of her life in recompense for what she had just done when Katara owed her nothing and was only helping her out of the goodness of her heart. But that was not what she felt then; the pitiful gurgling sounds coming from behind the heavy mask betraying Azula's agonized tears._

"_I am sorry Miss, but we cannot do that. She is to remain with it on until one of the doctors comes to sedate her," the tone with which it was said was apologetic. Katara turned to glare at the man, his hands up in a sign of powerlessness._

_Slowly, and in a manner ensuring that he understood that she did not give a shit about what he thought, Katara reiterated her previous command, "Take. It. Off."_

"_Mi-" _

"_Do you not hear me?" Katara's words were laced with venom. No human being deserved to be caged and muzzled like an animal. Azula was dangerous, she was maniacal, she was deranged, but she was not a beast._

"_I-"_

_Giving up on the man, Katara swiftly waterbended him and the other two guards into the walls with ice formed through freezing the water in her hip pouch. She kept them in her peripheral to ensure that, were she to need them at any time, she would be able to release them from their bonds. Moving slowly, cautiously, toward the frightened cocoon of chains that was Azula, she took a knee in front of her. The eyes flitted to her, once again displaying something completely foreign to the Azula than Katara had become accustomed to. _

"_I'm going to take this off now," she stated, speaking as though to a child. Azula shook her head frantically as Katara's hands moved to the clasp that held the thing tightly over the firebender's head, "but you have to keep still and not attack me okay?"_

_The clasp was broken and the thing fell into Katara's tanned fingers. She marveled at the sheer heft of the thing, wondering how Azula had been able to keep her head up while in its grip. The tear marks streaked plainly through the grime that had come to cake the firebender's cheeks, leaving small treks of ghostly flesh in their wake. Azula was shaking violently, her mouth moving at the speed of light, formulating words that were indecipherable. Katara, reached a tentative hand, pressing it against the side of the girl's face. There was no sign that Azula had registered the contact, her eyes trained at the wall directly to Katara's left as her lips continued to convey the unknown dialogue in her head. The waterbender gently guided Azula's head to turn away from the wall and more directly face her. For what seemed like forever, Azula kept glancing at the empty alcove of her cell, even with Katara's insistent pressure, until she finally came to gaze back at the blue orbs that had been observing her with unbridled concern._

"_Azula?" Katara questioned. She was still not sure whether the girl could see her, or whether she was still lost in a trance._

"_She says to trust you," Azula murmured, her fear slipping into every syllable. Katara looked over her shoulder, then, when she was certain that there was no one there, returned her attention to the shaking girl before her._

"_There isn't anyone there, Azula," she had heard of the delusions the girl suffered; visions of her mother and father haunting her day and night- not that Azula would have any awareness of the time of day in her crypt._

"_She says," Azula said louder, stronger, "to trust you. But he is telling me that I should kill you right now."_

_Katara tried to tell herself that the pit in her stomach was from not having eaten anything since that morning. Lying to oneself was always harder than lying to another, and Katara was probably the worst liar of them all._

"_I want to listen to him… I should listen to him… because if I kill you, they will kill me… and then, then he will leave me alone… and she will leave me alone too."_

"_You want to die?" Katara asked, dread curling up within her. Not for the first time since she had stepped into the dank underground, the emotion was not only felt for herself._

"_At first I didn't," Azula's gaze fell, her head lolling as though the effort of holding it up any longer was too much for her, "then the sun disappeared and I couldn't feel it any longer. Then my fire became weaker and vanished. Now I don't even feel like I am alive anyway."_

_Katara glanced at her before voicing her question, "But you just used your firebending."_

"_What?" Azula's eyes flickered back up to her face._

"_You just…" it was obvious that lapses in memory were also symptoms of whatever was ailing the distressed girl lying prone to the cold tiles and plaster around her._

"_I am sorry Miss Katara," a deep voice said from behind her," Katara and Azula both turned to look up at a tall man who had just come into the cell, "but your time with the patient is over."_

_Azula shuffled further into her wall, a formidable feat considering she was already chained so close to it already, curling into the fetal position so as to appear as small as possible. Katara rose with all of the authority and maturity that she could bring forth, but something about the man made her feel as small as Azula's huddled body._

_Looking back, Katara could only send a silent apology to the person who was and wasn't the former prodigy of the former dominant nation of the world and promise, "I will see you again."_

Korra's eyes had grown wide at the description of the cell and the treatment given to the Fire Princess. She thought of Kaji's protectiveness of her grandmother, viewing it in the light of what she had been told. That Azula had wanted revenge for what had been done, a form of reverting to the glory days of her youth, was no longer an alien topic that held no provocation.

"Azula was always proud of her heritage and the Fire Nation. When she was released, she proved herself loyal and dedicated to the betterment of the Land of Kindling Flame. Even eventual cooperation with the Avatar was achieved, though there was always tension between the two…"

Korra glanced at her teacher, confusion etched into her features. If Azula had been a loyal citizen of the Fire Nation, serving under her brother and became an ally of Aang's, then the catalyst for her eventual imperialistic mission entrusted to Kaji was once again unclear.

"In the interest of time, I will skip over the five years that I spent in the ward with Azula. It is only important that you know that my increased time spent in that cell drew me further from Aang and my friends, and closer to the enigma that was Azula. As she became more cognizant, I began to learn more about her past and her stigma."

_Katara could not be sure when it had happened, but she could no longer lie to herself about her newfound connection to the Fire Nation girl she had spent the better part of her teenage years looking after. What she had with Azula, she had come to jokingly describe as a friendship born of desperation and insanity- on the part of both parties. As it was, the twenty-one-year-old waterbender practically skipped up the stairs leading to the fifth floor of the hospital where she had had Azula transferred after a two year battle with Zuko, Aang, and the conjoined forces of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom advisers adamant about ensuring that the girl never saw the light of day again. As it was, today was the day that Katara would commence the next stage of the Princess's rehabilitation. Today would be the day that Azula was finally released from the mental institution. And to celebrate it, and the eventual reinstitution of Azula's birthright as a member of the Royal Family if she continued to display 'good behavior,' Katara had decided to take the girl out on an immediate shopping trip as most of her clothing from before the end of the Hundred-Year War would no longer fit her._

_The confusion on Azula's face as she was led out into the foyer without any form of restraint on her hands and feet had Katara feeling slightly guilty-more because of the amusement she felt over the blatancy of the emotion than the fact that the Princess had become so used to bondage as to find freedom strange. Realization hit the firebender's stormy eyes, her raised eyebrows sinking into their usual casual spots upon her brow, when she saw the waterbender approach._

"_How are you feeling this morning?" Katara asked cheerfully. Azula's smirk had lost most of its snide-ness, leaving the closest rendition of a smile that Katara ever felt she would be privy to. It was a nice expression._

"_Not too bad. I am not sure what has happened to warrant my removal from The Room, but I am not one to complain," Azula remarked, shrugging her shoulders which had lost their boniness to be replaced with some muscle over the years she had spent in recovery from her initial treatment._

_Katara 's face fell slightly at the hostile tone with which Azula still referred to her residence for the past five years. The Princess refused to call it 'My Room' or any other sort of possessive term, though Katara supposed that she wouldn't want to be affiliated with the physical embodiment of a mental affliction that had ruined her life either. _

"_So," a hasty correction spilled out of the Fire Princess. She did not know why she felt like apologizing to the girl whom she had looked down upon for so long; even if those days had long since vanished into the veil of the past that lay like some unreachable dream at the corner of her mind._

"_So," was the reply. Nothing had been said, but they had developed their own sort of language, making the silent connections between what was vocalized and what did not have to be._

_Katara shook her head, her signature braid and loopies swinging with the motion. She had not come all of the way there to simply have a staring contest with her latest friend. _Friend, _she liked the sound of that running through her brain._

"_I was wondering if, for your first day out of the hospital, you would like to get out of those clothes?" Katara inquired._

"_Oh yeah?" Azula moved her eyebrows up in a mock suggestive look. Katara's cheeks burned with the embarrassment of what her words had sounded like, though she was quite sure that both she and Azula knew that it had not been an intentional allusion._

"_And get you some new ones. Spirits, I think I liked you better when you couldn't make me feel like an idiot,' Katara grumbled. She was relieved that her joke, which easily would have backfired spectacularly had the girl standing opposite to her taken it the wrong way, was instead accepted with a graceful chuckle._

"_Please forgive me," Azula stepped forward and draped an arm lazily over Katara's shoulders; she had grown to be about half a foot taller than the waterbender, much to Katara's utter dismay, "boredom gifts one with a dirty mind."_

"_I will think about it," Katara turned with difficulty, thanks to the firebender lazily leaning into her, and thanked the guards stoically watching their departure. Azula also left them with a few parting words that Katara quickly drowned out by smacking her hand over the girl's mouth._

"Alas, I think I lost myself in that," Master Katara sighed, though she was smiling slightly at the drifting memory. Her eyes moved back up to Korra before she moved on, "It was not until a few weeks later that the entire scandal began; though, it was nothing short of innocent in its fledgling phase, only threatening to break us all as it blossomed into something far greater."

_It was a stormy day in the Fire Nation. Katara wistfully glared at the torrential monsoon bearing down on the tropical vegetation on the other side of the glass that protected her from the deluge. She would have liked to imagine that it was an expression of her unrelenting anger, but she knew that even she was not strong enough to bring about such a downpour. Lightning flashed in the distance and she numbly counted off the seconds until the boom sounded._

_Watching the scenery took her mind away from the argument she had had with a certain airbending boy earlier that morning. She hated how stressed everything had become since Azula's release. The girl had done nothing to warrant the aggression against everything she did. And to have Aang get upset over how much Katara defended her, well that was uncalled for; she was also completely in the right with her adamancy in Azula's reform. The Fire Princess had done nothing but help them quiet the rebellions within the continent, strengthened the shaky diplomatic ties with the other nations, and even personally apologized to King Kuei (something Katara would never have expected her to be capable of). As if that alone had not been enough, she had offered her help in Kioshi Island as a way of making amends and, though she was shot down by Suki, it had led to Azula's reunion with her best childhood friend Ty Lee. The two had become somewhat inseparable for a few months after, much to Katara's.. no, she would not believe that she was jealous that Azula was finally piecing her life back together. Such pettiness was sure to only hurt them both. Still, sometimes- most times- Katara found herself talking to the Fire Princess more and more often. Azula listened; that was the key difference between her and the nineteen-year-old Avatar. Aang was always busy going here or there on small missions that could have been left to others, without even asking for her consent, and the worst of it was that he expected her to come along as though she had nothing of importance to attend to. _

_That had been the meat of their argument that day. He had informed her in passing that they would be leaving the Fire Nation Capital to go to Ba Sing Se for an annual festival, and later a conference, in two days. Forget that she still had to convince Azula that she was strong enough to face her father and ask him about the whereabouts of her mother; no, she had to be the Avatar's little pet puppy, following at his heels wherever he went. In short, she had yelled and he had yelled and they ended things the same ways they had always ended them, by walking in opposite directions and finding some way to vent that usually involved violent displays of force._

_A movement caught the corner of Katara's eye. Her head turned and she gaped as she saw a figure disappearing underneath a tree that looked just about ready to be torn from its roots. Curiosity piqued, and with no intention of simply sitting around and stewing, Katara pulled one of her heavier cloaks from its hook and proceeded to exit her way into the rain._

_The wind was her worst enemy as she kept pace with the hooded figure briskly moving through the wet foliage. She had nearly lost whoever it was twice because her legs had been practically swept out from under her in a particularly sharp tug against her own protective garment. The added complication of having to remain stealthily behind the figure led to quite a bit of frustration and more than a few scratches on her exposed hands and the bottom of her ankles. In her hurry to leave, she had not thought to put on boots, forsaking them for lighter slippers._

_The figure had finally come to a stop at the corner of a glade. The grass clung to the earth in an attempt at staying grounded; the sheets of water pounding over the blades gave the field the illusion of fluid water. The cloak of the person ahead of Katara fell to the floor revealing pale, slim shoulders and a muscular back. The body was slight, clearly feminine, but strong in the subtleties of its motion. Black hair was pulled up in a neat topknot with a small crown stuck into the center, the tip gleaming even in the darkness of the overcast sky. If Katara had held any doubts over the identity of her mysterious shade before, they vanished instantaneously at the sight of it. _

_Azula stepped out into the center of the meadow, striding with confidence one rarely displayed in the wake of such a cruel storm. Her arms moved in circular motions as she warmed herself up for the form she, no doubt, had come to perform. Katara remembered how much Azula hated practicing in the Royal Palace. She had explained it once, saying that she felt the eyes of the servants and nobles always on her, waiting for her to slip up and fall into a fit of incoherent rage, distracted her from her movements and usually ended only in frustration. That or she believed them to still be wary of her, wishing that the Avatar had relieved her of her gift before she had been shut away in her prison cell._

_Now, looking on as the waves of indigo fire flew past her dynamic body, flowing with each punch or kick or flip, Katara hated them all for wanting to take away what made Azula so beautiful. It was entrancing, how those flames looked so magnificent when they were not being directed at her in an attempt to roast her alive. It was almost as if they were breathing, living things, writhing and circling like great serpents of molten air._

_Katara could not tell if Azula sensed the sudden change in pressure around the glade. She did instantaneously. It was as if the entire ground fizzled with unbridled energy ready to burst. The waterbender's muscles clenched in reflexive anticipation for what was to follow, her tongue resting on her palate and her hands moving to uncork her water skin. Nothing could have prepared her for the ensuing clash of elemental power. The entire field lit up like a star had just fallen from the heavens and crashed into the firebender standing in the center of the field. Katara did not notice that she cried out, her eardrums ringing from the resounding supersonic waves that popped her eardrums. Even the blood that came out of her delicate ears was lost in the blinding flash that enveloped everything and erased it from existence. At least, it did for a second, before the light retracted from whence it came and the world went completely dark._

_Katara's eyes fluttered open, but she could not see anything. For a moment of sheer terror, she thought that she had gone blind from the violent emission of pure white light. Her corneas must have evaporated and her retinas burned to a crisp. She did not want to think of the horror of having to live the rest of her days without being able to look at the snow fields of her home or the caring faces of her loved ones. She was not like Toph; her feet could not see for her eyes._

_Then the darkness lifted and she was able to make out little shades and blurs. Some of them moved, making her head swim to a degree that caused her to close her eyelids. Something soft was running over her cheeks, a warmth that felt like a heavenly flame in the middle of a blizzard. Katara moved toward it, her hand grasping at the foreign contours, trying to make sense of what it was through textile sense as her others seemed shot to hell. _

_Then there was a sound. It was very faint, only bubbling pockets of ghostly murmuring, lilting and waning before growing increasing stronger. The gentle warmth became a strong, jolting shake. Her arm was being clasped, hard. The jolts continued, only worsening her headache; Katara's hands went up, flailing in an attempt to assuage whatever it was that was moving her in the unwanted manner. The hand was grabbed, her head elevated until it rested on a very silky surface, like a plush pillow. Her nose picked up the faint smell of spice and electricity, the combination so eccentric as to evade a just description. _

_She tried opening her eyes again, praying for a clearer visual, or at least some indication of a more intense stimulation of her optic nerve. She let out a breath she had not been aware of holding as the images focused into a perfect picture. Above her, there were trees, their dark canopy swaying restlessly though her ears still could not pick up the rustling of the leaves or the creaking of the trunks as they resisted the wind's push. Droplets of water came down as if in slow motion, each little circle plopping on her eyelids, clear as fine glass. And then there were the eyes. Katara couldn't seem to turn away from them once she had made contact with the rich glow coming from the captivating irises looking down on her. Another flash of light illuminated the face, shrouding it in a celestial halo that darkened the sharp cheekbones and prominent lips, before the dark grey of the sky reappeared in the background. The lips were saying something, moving urgently in long silent sentences that were indistinguishable. Katara felt a strange closeness to the person who was cradling her head in their lap. The silky feeling, she was able to finally discern as clothing. The warm, fleeting pressure against her face was the caress of long fingers, carefully brushing the wet streaks of hair out of her face._

"_-ra, -ara, -tara, Katara!" the sound returned with the conjoint effect of moving into a high elevation too quickly. She must have shown her discomfort, because her companion started frantically questioning the nature of her pain._

"_Shush," Katara could not even believe that she had enough of her voice to say it. It took a few more deep gulps of the crisp air before she could finally finish her thought, "I'm okay."_

_Relief was quickly overshadowed by a darker complexion across the eyes, bronze under the cover of the clouds and the lack of reflection from the sun. The waterbender gave a little yelp as she was heaved into a sitting position, the vertigo making her head spin more intensely than she would have liked. Adding insult to injury, she was almost as harshly spun around on the spot before coming within inches of the other girl's face._

"_Azula?"_

"_You idiot!" the words came out as a crack, stinging like a whip and cutting deeply into Katara's heart. There was certainly anger in them, but overwhelming was the amount of fear radiating from the trembling shoulders and clenched hands. The eyes; Katara always returned to her eyes, pleadingly seeking for the confirmation that she was, indeed, alright._

"_I-"_

"_You could have been killed," it was evident that the Fire Princess had no intention of letting her subject get even one word out. "Do you know how dangerous it is to be out in a storm like this?"_

_It was Katara's turn to grab a hold of the girl kneeling in front of her. Azula's shirt clenched tightly in both of her hands, pulling her down to be exactly eyelevel with the miffed Tribeswoman, Katara enlightened her on the stupidity of the statement, "Then what in the hell were _you _doing standing in the middle of a field, in the middle of a lightning storm? You should know that clearings like that are dangerous."_

_Azula's surprise let up slightly and she began to shake even more violently than she had been a moment earlier. Her face was hidden from Katara, so she immediately thought the worst; her hands reached out to cup the smooth cheek of the heaving Princess. Azula's head moved up; the waterbender sat in a mild stasis of shock as she saw that her worry was unfounded and her companion was, in fact, laughing. She could not really remember ever seeing Azula that way: tears spilling from her eyes, her hands wrapped around her torso as it convulsed, and the widest smile she had ever seen gracing the girl's pale cheeks._

"_What is so funny?" was the indignant inquiry._

"_Y-You were worried… about me?" the question was said between fits of giggles. "I- I'm a lightning _bender _you know. I am sort of capable of preventing it from actually frying me up."_

_Katara was astounded. She knew that Zuko could redirect the strikes of electricity fired at him from opponents and Azula had been quick to learn in the weeks she had spent in the palace after her release from the institute, but such a blast. It was not simply a current conjured up by another human being. This was akin to deflecting a blast sent down from the Spirits themselves._

"_Your confidence is staggering," Azula sarcastically commented, seeing the incredulity etched into Katara's face._

"_I- no, that isn't it," Katara, waved her hands as though to erase any offense that may have been taken by her dumbstruck expression._

"_Hey, it's okay," Katara looked up to see that Azula had, once again, closed the distance between them, her body leaning against her arms, firmly planted on the soggy, leaf-strewn ground._

_The blush that crept over the darkened skin of the Antarctic girl came unbidden. She wanted to turn away, to get up and brush herself off before returning to the safety of her quarters, but the steely gaze that was being directed to her kept her in place. There was something in those metallic depths that ensnared her will, crushing any sort of impulse to back away. Their proximity was so small that she could taste the firebender's breathes on the tip of her tongue. Katara had not even noticed when her lips had drifted apart._

"_If I did something right now and blamed it on the fact that I was hit by a high electric voltage, would you take it as a viable excuse?" it was a joke, but Katara nodded like a simpleton anyway. A subconscious portion of her mind told her what was about to happen, her body moving in a more comfortable position that would allow better access to the girl leaning further into her._

_The ensuing press of dark crimson lips to light beige was trepid, questioning the boundaries that the firebender was so blatantly crossing. Katara had her eyes shut, enjoying the extra attention she was able to give to the sensitive pressure points in her lips by extinguishing her other senses. Instead of the usual darkness that greeted her upon entry into her subconscious, her inner vision was swimming in a sea of soft pinks and vibrant reds. She had never really experienced something this… good._

_A whine broke through her still parted lips when Azula drew away from her. Katara's eyes snapped open, terrified at what she might find on the other side of her fantasy. Her friend, if she could even refer to her as such anymore, had her back turned, hunched with her knees tucked tightly into her chest like a frightened child._

"_Azula-" Katara  
started, reaching for her with a hand much like the first time she had come into contact with the Princess in the mental ward. She cursed at herself for letting the exchange take place when it was obvious that the twenty-one-year-old was still far from complete recovery. A relapse now would only foreshadow pain and suffering in the future._

"_I- I d-don't know what came over me," came the hushed reply, staying the tanned hand and leaving it suspended in the air. Katara was unsure whether she should have retracted it, but her muscles would no longer take orders from her central nervous system and it was a mute point as a result._

_A choked inhale followed by a forced exhale was the only indication of movement coming from Azula's introverted form. Then she resumed speaking, tongue swollen in her mouth, for the first time in years, she felt at a loss for the right words. No, not even the right ones; the dispute between using a lie to cover up her indiscretion battled with the novel idea of actually telling her longtime confidante the complete truth. _

_At the onset, the latter seemed destined to win out, but old habits died hard in the young Royal, so she shook her head and turned to give the silent girl behind her the cheeriest smile she could muster, "Must be losing my mind. You should probably have a look when we get back to the palace. I guess you had a good point about the lightning frying me up."_

_Katara, however, was having none of it. Her instincts had rarely failed her, and when they had it had only been because of her youth and inexperience, so she took the plunge and rammed her body into Azula's. The princess went rigid in her arms, at first trying to push away her assailant. As Katara's tongue traced her flushed bottom lip, she immediately knew that there was no use in resistance. Even if she could come up with a coherent thought in her head, Azula was certain that it would hardly be an interjection._

If Korra had not been shocked up until that point, she most definitely was then. She could not even start to fathom what her mentor was telling her. In her head, she had never imagined that there was someone so close to her who had the same… sexual cravings, as herself. The stories told about same-sex couples had always been far away dreams or discredited taboos. To have her teacher, her first friend, personally relate to Korra's relationship with Kaji was… it was both exhilarating and maddening. Korra felt gradual feeling seep back into her arms and legs, giving her a sort of sense overload. Everything was crisper; the smells grew stronger; the feeling of the chair was harder against her thighs and back; even her vision seemed to be swimming in mixtures of extreme clarity and then hazy nothingness. But, if Katara had in fact known what Korra had been going through- particularly since they both were infatuated with women with matching personalities and heritages not to mention blood- then the question became: why did she not console Korra, give her advice? Instead, the old woman had blown up in her face about it as though Korra had committed some heinous act that damned her for all eternity. That was, perhaps, what hurt the most about it all. Korra would have cared less who her mentor had chosen to love. Aang may have been her past life, but she would never have held a grudge against the waterbender for having feelings for another. It was natural, almost anticipatable. So, why? Why had she lied and told Korra that she was making this horrible mistake with Kaji when it had been something they shared?

"Why?" Korra whispered.

"Korra?" Katara was unsure what to answer to the vague, pleading inquiry. She wanted nothing more than to offer an explanation, but she was no mind reader.

"Why did you make me believe that what I felt for Kaji was this unnatural, horrible corruption of compatibility? I thought that you hated me because I loved her," the tears came in little transparent drips, curving along her face until they conjoined under her chin and fell steadily onto Korra's clenched hands. Katara's eyes shined with hurt, being fully taken aback by the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Korra, I never meant for you to think that there was something _wrong _with you," she wrapped her arms around her trembling student in what she hoped was a comforting consolation. "I was so afraid that you would end up hurt and blame yourself for years like I did. I did not want you to be broken up by your duty and your love when it is a choice that no one should have to make."

"You told me that once," Korra hiccupped.

"I did, didn't I?" Katara sidled closer, giving off her motherly warmth as she soothed the girl in her arms. She sometimes wondered why the world deemed it the necessity of the young to hold all of its burdens.

"I know that it is difficult for you to understand the intentions of a fraying old woman, but I have only wanted the best for you," Katara continued. "I made too many mistakes, lost too many people close to me, to be any good at letting go of the loved ones I have left."

Korra sniffled, rubbing at the drying liquid on her cheeks and eye line. Her voice was small, but it held a renewed strength to it, "The story isn't done though, is it? You still have to tell me why it is your fault that Azula set this mission on Kaji."

"I am getting to it now," Katara answered. "It had been a few years that we kept our little liaisons a secret from those around us. Azula had been getting more and more frustrated with the public displays of affection I still portrayed with Aang whenever we held a conference or went out with the others from the Gaang. I was so young… and so foolish, to believe that I could have both my lover and keep from hurting Aang by breaking it off with him. Looking back, it was obvious he knew that not everything was golden between us; we were too platonic in private for there to not be tension. Then that day came, when I had to choose…"

_Katara stared out into the midsummer night sky. It was still gradually falling into darkness, the light violet lingering at the edges of the world in remembrance of the warm presence of the sun that had since faded. Her hands rested over her stomach, running over the contours that had not been noticeable to her before that day. Now, it was hard to imagine not being able to sense the change going on within her. The muscle had always been taut, hard to the touch underneath her supple skin; it was different in its stiffness at that moment though. Now, the alterations to her physique were discernible, tangible under her grazing fingertips. And she hated it almost as much as she loved it. The good news could not have come at a worse time._

"_Is your stomach hurting?" a sultry voice came from behind her. The waterbender could see the silhouette of her lover swaying toward her, walking as smoothly as if she were floating on air._

"_No," she said curtly. The words she knew she needed to say were refusing to come forth. Katara had a responsibility to her firebender to tell her the secret she had kept from everyone around her- with the exception of Toph who had realized what had happened at about the same time as Katara herself- but she wanted to hold onto the warmth of those strong arms around her waist for as long as she could. It was reassuring to feel so close to Azula, to know that she still thought of Katara as the most beautiful being to grace her eyes. It was selfish, egotistical, and it was completely intoxicating._

"_Something is bothering you," it was a statement. As much as the darker girl wanted to deny it, Azula had learned her subtle body signals just as finely as Katara had memorized the firebender's. They truly were the completion of one another… except that the connection was soon to be severed by Katara's weakness. And she hated herself for it. _

_Again she thought of that evening. The yelling and the drinking, until she could no longer remember what she had been doing. It was completely out of her character; she had no idea where the sudden impulsive indignation became a physical entity. All she knew was that she had been tired of Aang's complaints, his incessant accusations of her lack of love and appreciation for him; and instead of running into the arms that she knew were hers forever, there with the comfort and support she needed, she had downed half a bottle of Sake and practically mauled the man verbally assailing her in some contorted form of proving him wrong._

"_Katara?" the worry was evident on Azula's tongue. She had been noticing her love drifting further away from all around her for the past few weeks and it was terrifying her. She had never really felt like anyone loved her so unconditionally; Katara had given her what she had craved most. She was the key to Azula's sanity, and watching the girl shut herself in a shell was too much to bear._

"_Katara," she tried again. "Talk to me, please. Tell me what is wrong."_

_The blue eyes that slowly moved to meet her own were so full of conflicting negative emotions that Azula could only think to lean in and give the girl a small peck on the lips in reassurance. Katara turned away quickly, not noticing the hurt that crossed over Azula's face, but innately knowing that it was there. Sighing, the Princess grudgingly settled with wrapping her arms around Katara's waist and resting her chin on her shoulder. Their height difference made it necessary for Azula to bend in order to achieve the posture, but she did not pay any heed to the minor discomfort it caused her spine._

"_We have to talk."_

_The finality in the tone of voice Katara used, so cold and dead, immediately caused the fine hairs on the Princess's arms to stand on end. Azula knew that voice -she had heard it enough from her mother, her 'friends,' anyone who was preparing to tell her something that would undoubtedly cause her great pain- and her gut twisted in knots as images of her broken childhood played in reels behind her eyelids. She shuddered and forced her eyes open to discard them. If Katara was indeed in some sort of trouble, Azula would have to remain strong for her. Katara had been there when she had been at her most vulnerable; it was the least she could do to return the favor to a small degree._

"_Alright, love," she murmured into the shorter girl's shoulder blade. "You can tell me anything."_

_Katara took a series of shallow breathes that were bordering on hyperventilation before regaining enough control over her larynx to whisper, "I'm pregnant."_

_At first, Azula thought that she had heard wrong. Her overactive brain spun in circles, trying to quantify a valid explanation to the disarming confession. It took a ridiculously long time for her to even grasp at the obvious fact that there was no possible way that Katara could have become pregnant whilst also remaining faithful to her. Then the burning in her stomach started. Azula ripped her hands away from the waterbender, afraid that they would burst into flame and harm the girl if she stayed behind her. Katara, already scared witless, took it in the worst possible way, breaking down into tears and sinking to the floor._

"_You must hate me so much," she choked out in between sobs. Her hands balled into fists on the carpet._

"_I-" Azula did not know what to say. She did not feel hate… in fact, a strange sort of numb detachment had taken over her entire body. It was like her being was wrapped in a fuzzy covering that prevented her from seeing a completely focused picture in front of her eyes._

"_And you are only going to hate me more," Katara wept. She dared not look up from her bowed position on the floor. Her only indication of Azula's continued presence in the room being the girl's pointed boots._

"_N-no," Azula's brain snapped together with such violent intensity that she stumbled forward in a sudden rush to get to the other girl's kneeling form. Her hands, sufficiently cooled, reached down to cup Katara's tear-stained cheeks. "I don't hate you. I never could."_

_The earnestness in her eyes did not go unnoticed, yet, rather than calming the hysterical waterbender, Katara only disintegrated into an intensified fit of uncontrollable sobs. Azula moved to embrace her, only to feel the trembling hands of her lover push hard against her chest._

"_N-no, you don't understand," Katara hiccupped._

_The confusion was evident on the Princess's face. She had to admit that, since she had shared the kiss with Katara in the storm so long ago, the emotion had been a constant reoccurrence and Azula did not know whether she would ever get used to not being in total control. Words were being spoken without thought, her lips whispering reassurances like tiny prayers, "It's okay. We will figure this out together. Everything will be fine," and she tried to believe in what she said. For once, Azula had no idea whether she was lying or speaking the truth._

"_Azula," Katara looked into the golden hues she had come to find so magical. She knew that what she was about to say would hurt like hell for both of them, but she also knew that she could no longer keep stringing the girl along anymore. It would not be fair to her to keep her caged like some songbird for Katara's entertainment whilst the waterbender was free to live her life as she pleased. She had helped Azula regain her freedom, and she would not be the one to take it from her now that they had come so far. There was only one thing to say, and she knew beyond a doubt that it would not be easy. It felt like she was tearing out a part of herself in her next sentence; the possible futures where she found herself lying in the firebender's arms vanishing in an instant to be overtaken by a picture of Katara in the arms of another, "This child is Aang's."_

_Azula had deducted as much. It was not too mindboggling as the two had been 'close' in the eyes of the public for over two decades or so. Still, the utter animosity she felt for him at that moment was only restrained by her determination to make whatever Katara had to say less difficult for her. Taking advantage of the pause, she attempted a hopeful expression as she nearly begged, "So, we continue keeping this a secret. It is alright, really. I am used to it by now, and I know a child will probably take you away from me for a larger portion of the time, but I can deal with that-"_

_Katara's shaking head stopped her dead in her ramblings. Azula's pupils narrowed to the point where there was almost nothing left of them. The girl obviously held little to no intention of upholding such a strained relationship, knowing it would only hold a temporary reprieve for them. Swallowing the bile threatening to spill out of her epiglottis, Katara finished her sentence, all of its dread finality seeping into Azula's frame in tiny dagger pricks, "This needs to stop. I- I am going to have a child and he or she is going to need a family… and only Aang can provide that for me."_

_It was a slap in the face, it was an uppercut to her gut, it was a vice grip wrenching her organs out and flipping them inside out. Azula, already kneeling on the floor, fell back heavily into a sitting position. Her arms came behind her in a supportive sort of position only to give out as her elbows inexplicably weakened. Her head hit the carpeted ground with a muffled thud. The blood throbbing within her temples was louder than a blaring war horn. It was the Agni Kai all over again. It was that dark pit that she had spent the final part of her teenage years in. And it was far worse than both of those things, because she had never cared as much about anyone like she had about the waterbender; and to have it all just thrown away over a mistake! _It had to have been a mistake, right? Katara had told her many times that, though Aang was one of her closest friends, she did not love him like she loved her… Was it all a lie? _Azula's mind was shutting down at a frightening rate. Her eyes glazed and focused in concentric patterns. It was not possible. She had come so far, only to lose it all again. Had this been her fate all along: to come so close to the fruits of victory again, only to have everything she had strived for stolen and any remains ground into dust?_

"_Azula," Katara placed a hand on her calf, afraid of moving too close to the firebender when she was in such an unstable condition. "I am sorry."_

"_I am too," Azula muttered. Picking herself up and dusting off the nonexistent specks of microscopic debris, she gave the waterbender, still on the floor, a swift parting glance before sweeping out of the room and closing the door with a bang that echoed down the corridor she took for her retreat._

"I saw it back then," Katara mused, her old hands splayed out before her as though she could count off the memories in the wrinkles and blemishes. "Her eyes held that same look as before the end of the war. The one-minded infatuation with completing the task she set for herself."

"I married Aang before our first child was born. For a while, I was happy; my daughter kept me busy and my bond with Aang grew stronger than ever with her tying us together… but I never forgot. We left the Fire Nation so that we could live amongst the reappearing nomads in the Air Temples. It was after either Boomi's birth or Tenzin's, I cannot remember which, that I heard word of Azula's marriage and her own child. In my pettiness, I actually felt jealousy and regret for the first time since we left. I only began to suspect any ulterior motives to having her legacy continued after the girl, Kaji, suddenly appeared out of nowhere to take the throne."

"I should have talked to Azula, tried to make her understand that it was not my intention to abandon her. I sincerely thought that what I was doing was the best for the both of us. I was always like that- maybe I still am- thinking that I knew best and rarely taking into consideration how others might disagree."

Katara hung her head. From under the shadow created by her brow, she finished her story with her own implied question, "Well, child, that is all there is to say. I do not know what the future holds in store for us, but it is up to you to decide which course we take. What is your choice, Avatar?"

**P.S: I was thinking, this story is coming to the end (no worries, when I say that, I still think I have at least eight-ish more chapters if not more left), but I really enjoyed writing this... so I thought, why not make an Azutara prequel so that I don't have this empty feeling after I do finish it. Tell me what you think of that idea in your wodnerful reviews. Would you read it? I am more of a Tyzula fan, but I like the possible angst that comes with the Azula/Katara pairing. Anyway, goodnight to you all, I am going to sleep.**


	30. Bones and Shadows

**A/N: Last chapter, not continuing the story anymore, too much to do. Ha, APRIL FOOLS, like I would ever give up on you guys. No way, this story is my life. It is officially Spring Break, and though I have to do a project, take 3 tests (1 down this morning though) and I have to read a book for school, I hope to update some time this week... or Sunday night. Reviews make me write much faster. Lets get them to 50 and I will throw you all a digital party in your honor. Bring your own unicorns and there will be streamers! If you don't like unicorns, bring some other fantasy creature of your choice! But only if we reach that magic number. Thank you to everyone who is still bearing with me and I love you all.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing sadly. I make no profit, I am broke... completely, to the point where all my socks have holes (that is exaggerated, only some of them do). But free is better and I would go on a rampage if I had to buy fanfictions so it's for the best.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"Choose your duty as Avatar and you will be hailed as a hero," the water changed again, showing the four sigils of the nations in harmony with each other. There was another scream, but it died down fairly quickly and it was much quieter than the others had been. Still, Korra much preferred the others to that one; it held so much fear and pain that she could feel her knees weaken. "The war will most probably be abandoned as too costly if you were to assert your powers and cripple the armed forces. Should that happen, I want you to bring the girl to me. You must swear to it, that Kaji will be mine as soon as her armies fall. That is my price Avatar Korra."

_I may not be well informed about Water Tribe tradition, but this is for you as a token of my feelings._

_ K._

Korra slipped the note back into the folds of the white parchment container. Her hand dug into the little pouch until it touched something cold. It was smooth, but not a rock. It had ridges that felt like metal, but the majority of the surface was something familiar. Korra gripped the small medallion and lifted it out to where she could scrutinize it with her eyes. It was a small circle, similar to the ornament adorning Katara's necklace. The one given to girls as a gift of engagement, a token of the other person's heart. This one, instead of being light blue and emblazoned with the crest of the Water Tribes, was a dark torrent of blue mixed with white to match Kaji's flames and had the Fire Nation crest entwined on the surface in silver. Another piece of paper was stuck to the back groove of the metal. On it read:

_I expect mine soon._

Katara hung her head. From under the shadow created by her brow, she finished her story with her own implied question, "Well, child, that is all there is to say. I do not know what the future holds in store for us, but it is up to you to decide which course we take. What is your choice, Avatar?"

The marshes were extensive, drifting in their bleak grey fields until the pale horizon engulfed them in its oblique light. Trees dotted the landscape in patches, surrounded by shrubbery that was more of an intricate web of twigs than actual greenery. Mosses and lichens hung from the bows of wood or floated by on the slow streams of water. There was no sound coming from the place that could have spoken for the hidden ecosystems and the organisms they housed. It was a dead place. Silent to the point that even the creak of the branches had ceased. They were dead too, the trees. A plop signified a fallen droplet of water, the ripple created spreading in its endless circles before the calm settled in again. It was a dead place… there was no breath there, no heartbeat.

Nothing.

Nothing, but the girl that walked through it.

Korra gazed up to try and see the sun, to pinpoint her location in the maze of rushes and swampland. A thin layer of sickly beige clouds hung over the entire expanse of sky, hiding the celestial body and distorting its rays into cold streams of pallid light. Had there been a wind to tell her where the sea was, perhaps she would have navigated her way out of the delta, but there was not even the slightest hint of a breeze. She sighed in resignation, bemoaning the fact that there wasn't even enough dry earth for her to sit on. Her boots, brown hide, sunk into the bog's soft mud with each step, making sucking noises when she wrenched them free and when she sunk them back in. Once, she had become afraid that she had become ensnared in quicksand. Her hands instinctively reached for the nearest assortment of vines, hanging from a particularly decrepit old tree. As she pulled on it for the leverage necessary to hoist herself out of the mire, the fragile gnarled limb strained and finally broke under the tension. The flustered Avatar had come out of the experience sopping wet and thoroughly frustrated- having discovered that her foot had not been stuck due to sinking mud, but a root wound around the toe of her boot.

"Lovely," she grumbled. Spirit dreams, for that was obviously what this was, had rarely been enjoyable in the past few months. If anything, she was just hoping that whoever had summoned her here made a point to show up soon. That way, she would be able to find herself back in her comfortable bed in the Air Temple and out of the stench of the bog.

Her eyes widened at the novel olfactory sensation. She had not been able to smell anything just moments before. Now, suddenly, an entire rush of corruption and rot descended on her. Korra scrambled to her feet, hands moving up to cup her mouth and nose so that she did not choke. Looking down, she saw that the murky water had become a dark shade of red, almost black as it flowed, tarlike, around her legs. The redness writhed among the thick ooze in slithery, serpentine patterns, created by the sudden appearance of the setting sun in the distance. Only, this sun was different than the one she was used to seeing. This sun was massive, at least three times bigger than the yellow star. That, and it was the color of a blood-orange. No, it was even deeper than that, a sunburst of scarlet laced with a tinge of yellow so as to turn it slightly orange at its circumference.

"What is this place?" she mouthed. Sound was still foreign in the strange space. A hidden taboo kept Korra from making it.

"A sunset," a voice echoed over the expanse. "Or perhaps a sunrise. One could not be sure until it moves either up or down. But then again, a sunset in one location is the sunrise of another, is it not?"

Korra spun around, eyes searching for the source of the voice. It was strange, almost a mixture of outward vocalization and an inner whisper coursing through her mind. There was a feminine lilt to it, but also a masculine depth. It was childishly soft and cracked with age. Beautiful, like a song as well as sharp, raucous as a raven-crow's caw.

There was a figure, a silhouette more like, leaning against one of the festering trunks to her left. Korra turned to it, only to see it fade into the shadows of the tree. Shadows were everywhere now, cast by the blood sun, rising and setting behind her. Even her own shadow seemed a monstrous distortion, standing as a giant against the tiny little bushes and streams of oil. Ghastly bubbles spurted their gooey innards in little torrents of drops. The figure was back, sitting with its legs crossed just at the top of Korra's vision. She peered at it cautiously, making no sudden movement to catch a complete glimpse of it. She would rather not have to hunt for it again if it chose to disappear like it had the first time.

"Who are you?" she asked. 'What are you?' did not seem the best way to get into the Spirit's good graces and Korra did not wish to offend. If it decided to leave her, she could well end up stuck in the dying lands until one of her past lives decided to come to her aid.

"Me?" the voice rang out in a whisper. The waters churned as though the sound was a physical force, ripples expanding until they hit her legs and broke into a plethora of smaller ripples moving opposite their predecessors.

"You," Korra affirmed. She had finally been able to take in the slight build of the shade, though its face was still obscured to her. It wore baggy pants, black and torn and splattered with mud. Not an inch of skin showed along its legs, white gauze was wrapped around its feet and the beginning of its calves to make up for the lack of protection afforded by the wooden sandals it wore. The gauze was also stained, though whatever had made it so looked to be more akin to ink than dirt. The pants were held together along with the dark grey shirt by a belt of worn thread. It had once been as black as the lower portion of the shade's attire, but time had weathered it to a hue closer to the shirt. A flowing coat of moving darkness had been precariously slung over the slight shoulders to hide the arms and upper torso where the shirt dipped and exposed the skin… if it was skin that lay beneath. Korra's eyes risked looking up enough to see her companion's face. A shawl of gold, the only color on the thing, wrapped around the head of it, shrouding everything from sight except for a patch of ashen face paint and two very round eyes peering from a gap in the fabric. It was almost as if they were made of buttons sown into the figure itself, glistening black buttons alight with the fire from the red star it faced.

"I," the figure stood as though it had no spine, its back arching and arms flailing until the feet were grounded. Then, like some kind of rubber band uncoiling, it straightened and came to look upon her again. Korra gasped at it. It stood at least ten feet tall, its arms hanging limply from its sides with hands and fingers wrapped in gauze much like the feet. The shawl had shifted slightly in its ascent, uncovering the slope of the nose, also splayed with the paint.

"I," the figure slouched so that it was only about a foot away from her. Korra's breathing turned erratic at the sight of those eyes, staring intently at her. She held back a scream when it became clear that she had been wrong in her analogy, for the eyes were, truly, made of two dark black buttons sown into the face. The skin was patchy, falling in certain places, held together by staples and stitches in others.

"I am Bezliki Deviat, ninth of the Order of Those Without Faces. Simply, you may call me Bezl Nine… or should it be only Bezl since adding the Nine would be too long for a nickname?" the thing rocked back on its heels, head lolling back and then forward.

"W-what do you want?" Korra repressed the urge to send a volley of fire at the shade, Bezliki, whatever it was, and then run for her life. Its Order, the name itself, reminded her of someone she could not hope to ignore anymore. Still, she was uncertain as to whether she would have rather faced Bezliki's master. Him, at least, she had become somewhat accustomed to. The Faceless, she was not so keen about.

"I?" Bezliki tilted its head so far to the right that there was a pop from the shade's neck. Jolting it back into a straight position, the Faceless continued, "I do not want anything. Perhaps you were inquiring as to what my master wishes?"

"You know what I meant," Korra bit out. She was in no way patient enough to sit through technicalities with the unnatural phantasm. She had heard, from Aang and Tenzin, what happened to those whose faces Koh stole whilst bodily in the Spirit World. They turned into shades, like the one before her, forever trapped as Koh's servants. Forever trapped in the agony and pain that corrupted their dark, crystalline hearts still housed within their chests. Korra had never seen one before, and she doubted that she knew anyone who had. Even Aang had said that he had been spared the experience. Unless, he had lied to her so as not to have to relive an experience no one would have wanted.

"I will accept your remark as a positive answer, Avatar Korra," Bezliki said. Stretching out the freakish length that was its arm, it held its fist suspended, fingers facing downward to the pools of blackness. "I have a gift, from Master."

The hand twisted upward in an outward arc, bones and tendons cracking as the wrist detached and readjusted itself to compensate for the fact that it was not meant to be turned in such a manner. The fingers opened, gauze swaying despite the absence of a breeze. Nestled in the palm of the creature's hand was something small and shiny. Not shiny as with jewels or precious metals. This was the shine of rock, smooth and polished. Korra stood on her toes, attempting to see the thing more clearly. She had not expected a gift, nor did she trust it anymore than she could throw it and the messenger carrying it, but her curiosity was more of a driving factor than her trepidation. She doubted that Bezl's master would harm her now, not when he had had so many chances before.

"My apologies," Bezliki lowered the hand, its shoulder popping as the shade leaned to its side so as to place the thing directly in her line of sight. Korra's eyes widened. She did not completely understand what to make of what she saw. In the opened clutch of the Faceless, lying pale and serene in the shade of Korra's cast shadow, was a small necklace. The circular pendant was carved of white bone though it was made to reflect the rays of the red giant star as well as marble. Engraved into its surface was the sigil of the Water Tribes, the waves crashing in harmony with the slight elliptical shape of the medallion. The lines were traced in indigo dye. A small hole had been drilled into the top center, strung with a cerulean lace as thick as Korra's pinky. It was a perfect reflection of her eyes and fell in beautiful contrast to the cadaverous white fabric shielding it from the deteriorating corpse hand beneath.

"What is this for?" Korra genuinely could not see why she was being given this. She could not keep the secret hope that Bezliki's master had lost control of his faculties from blossoming in the pit of her stomach.

Bezliki seemed about to shrug nonchalantly in a 'he didn't say, I didn't ask' manner, when its stature became rigid. It looked a disfigured post of some sort, still and erect. Then the seizures took it. Hands, legs, torso, it did not matter; everything was moving, flailing as though without any muscular or skeletal system. The Faceless was a flag, flapping through a monsoon, shaking until Korra was sure that its insides were all misplaced within the hollowed chest. And the aspect that frightened her most: it was levitating; its body had not hit the ground in this epileptic episode, but rather seemed content to defy gravity and keep hanging in the air as a puppet on strings. Korra jumped back as one of Bezliki's hands nearly took off her head as the body began spinning in midflight.

Then it stilled. The head lolled, boneless. The hands reached to just below its hips, the belt had unraveled some and hung limply with them. The scarf was flapping wildly still, almost as if the Spirit that had occupied the empty vessel was somehow still trapped within the fabric.

The button eyes met hers, glistening, then turning milky and watery. Liquid poured from the holes, disintegrating the cobalt disks until stern, brown orbs gazed at her. They were vacant at first, blind and pale, but soon they filled with the dark essence of the one Korra had been anticipating. The hand that had held the necklace returned to its outstretched position, offering the trinket which had, amazingly, not been discarded in the violent possession of the body. Korra stepped back, keeping a wide void between herself and those flaky extensions.

The voice that was heard from behind the golden scarf was no longer the coalition of a multitude of different pitches and frequencies, but one low, gruff voice. It was certainly a man's voice, spiced with the accent of the northern provinces of the Fire Nation. The dialect was old; probably over one hundred, maybe even two hundred, years old, but Korra could still understand the words. Koh had ensured that with his arrival.

"Take it Avatar. You have chosen yes?" his eyes boar into her. He could see it all, everything, and she knew it. Korra knew that, despite her indecision in the light of Kaji's past and the revelations of her mentor, she could not betray the trust of the innocent people who believed in her. She loved Kaji, she knew that, but she had let her go when she had accepted the Avatar State. She knew that her choice was the world. It had to be. But she also knew what that choice entailed. She had prayed to all of the Spirits, the one currently facing her excluded, for a solution that would not force her to forsake the girl she had once given her heart to. Even Agni, her lover turned enemy's own god. She had prayed, beseeched, begged, but there had been no answer and no help. Now, facing the dark creature and the even darker entity that had taken residence within it, she doubted that even hope was left.

"I have chosen…" she could not say the words. She refused to say them. Koh was well aware of her course of action; she felt no obligation to force herself into uttering those vile words.

"Then take it," the pendant was offered once more; it tinkled as it hit the palm of the Faceless hand.

"And do what with it?" Korra growled. The bone, once so quaint and pretty now looked more toxic than a bottle of arsenic.

"Present it to her as a token of your love of course," Koh's face laughed. Korra could not see it happening and the sound was that of nails scraping against a chalkboard, and yet she was still able to recognize it for what it was.

"What are you planning, Koh?"

The Spirit sounded offended. It was astonishing how good he was at it, even if it was meant to be mocking, "Oh, do you not trust me. I assure you I have your best intentions in mind."

Korra raised an eyebrow at that. Even a skilled liar like Koh was not able to pull off that one. He cackled at her expression, his mirth grating on her already frayed nerves. "Very well; give the Fire Lord this pendant the moment you see her. It will open a gateway that will allow her to come into the Spirit World, body and mind and all. After that, I will consider the debt repaid, and you will no longer have to fear me Avatar… unless you request my aid in the future."

He stopped; Korra looked at the tiny piece of jewelry in his hand. Her mind worked in a whirlwind. She gazed at the garbed fingers and up; the gauze extended up along the forearm until it was lost among the black smoke swirling along the sleeve of the shadow cloak. _Body and mind and all,_ she repeated. _Body and mind and all._ Her eyes snapped up to meet the hard brown ones ingrained in the cadaver where its buttons used to be. _Body,_ she realized. Koh did not simply want Kaji's face; he wanted her to become another of his Faceless, a servant for eternity, and he needed her body for it. Her gasp must have alerted him to her conclusion as he reached out with the speed of a viper and seized her arm just below the wrist. The cloth was scratchy and the flesh- where it had been bared from its bindings- icy cold. Korra screamed, fighting to get the thing off of her, clawing at its arm to no avail. Her fingernails collected scraps of dead skin, falling away in clumps from where she gauged the flesh, but still there was no slackening to her shackle.

"You will do this, or I will take you right now," Koh threatened. Korra's large, frightened eyes met the cold ones looking down at her. She had almost forgotten about the need to keep apathetic in the presence of the Face-Snatcher as he had never taken the opportunity to take her visage before. He had always told her that she had to uphold the bargain; it had been her only trump card and so blatantly defying the Spirit was treacherous at best… fatal at worst.

"I…" Korra choked. Her voice was small, squeaky, like a child's.

"Take. It," it was a hiss. Her shaking hand, the one not held by the demonic entity, reached up to transfer the necklace from his possession to hers. At first, she could not find the motor skills to pick the thing up, her fingers slipping together over nothing, or the smooth bone slid through the clammy sweat that caked the tips of her thumb and forefinger. Then, her nails digging in for extra grip, she had it. She held the monstrous thing that was going to be Kaji's undoing and she knew that she would be the one to give it to the girl. And Kaji would have that heartbreaking light in her eyes, just as she always did whenever she saw Korra. Korra wanted to scream, she wanted to make her arm fling the wretched object into the depths of the swamp and face whatever fate awaited her at Koh's hand. She was not a coward; she was the Avatar; and yet she stood statuesque as Koh pulled away, hand gripping the pendant for dear life.

"You will come to thank me Avatar Korra," Koh strutted with his overly long legs, pacing in a circle around her as a leopard-sharp does to its prey. "Without Kaji, the entire conquest will fall apart and you will have saved the day."

His laugh was the last thing she saw before she was shaken from her trance and found herself lying on the hard floorboards of her room. Sunlight, real, brilliant, warm sunlight, streamed through her windows. Her sheets had fallen with her in haphazard streams of linen and she could see a pillow leaning limply against one of the far walls. It had certainly been quite the violent dream.

Picking herself up, Korra shook the last vestiges of the nightmare from her dazed mind. She rubbed the sore spot on her wrist, noticing the bruising that was starting to show along the dark skin. She had to make sure to put her bands over it so that no one questioned its origin. As she moved to get her bed back to its presentable tidiness, an idea struck the dark-skinned girl. The feelings had been real, but her hand had been empty when she had awoken. There was always the small chance that Koh's necklace had not made it back with her once she had awoken into the corporeal world. Rummaging through the sheets and pillows, Korra was starting to feel the familiar, welcome buzz of excitement. There was nothing, not a trace of the betrothal necklace in sight. The floor was likewise empty, as was the underside of her bed, and then the pockets of her pants and jackets. Korra's feet were light as feathers when her eyes caught on the last unchecked piece of furniture in her room. Her fingers trembled as she pulled open the top drawer to her bedside table. She inhaled at the sight of the necklace Kaji had presented to her, its Fire Nation symbol burning brilliantly as it was exposed to the sun's rays. And there, to the right of it, lay the intricate white-bone necklace with the indigo waves of the Water Tribe. Korra's tears came without her even noticing them. Her knees became weak, falling out from under her as she slumped to the floor, forehead pressed against the opened drawer. Her hand blindly searched along the interior for the cool metal of Kaji's betrothal necklace, the one that belonged now to Korra. The first contact was with the other necklace. Korra angrily pushed it to slide to the back of the table with a thud. Her fingers closed over her intended target. Taps sounded as the product of her sobs landed on her wooden floorboards. Her fingers clutched the necklace so hard that she dented the engraving ever so slightly. The pain became more and more shallow the harder she pressed against it. She could feel her heartbeat throbbing through her capillaries, pressed against the metal.

"Korra?" Korra inwardly cursed at her bad luck. She had hoped that no one would have found her at the moment of her weakness. Strong arms wrapped themselves around her and pulled her face into the familiar furs and sturdy wool garb.

"Master Katara," Korra strained to keep her voice from cracking. She hated it when her vocal chords broke and distorted the syllables.

"What is wrong child?" Katara questioned.

Korra sucked in a breath. She did not know whether it would be prudent to reveal to anyone her promise with the dark Spirit. She was afraid, more afraid than she had ever been in her life, and it was not for herself that she feared. How could she ever express in words the travesty she was going to perform?

"I- I did something foolish, and now I have to pay for it," Korra finally managed. She had to tell someone. It had been a burden kept to herself for far too long.

"What! What do you mean child? Is someone trying to harm you?" Katara's concern made Korra smile ruefully.

"No, no one is harming me. Would that it was so simple."

Katara waited. She hated to admit it, but Korra's remark put her spirit slightly more at ease. If Korra was not in danger, then it was something she was confident would be solvable with time and careful thought.

"I made an accord with Koh…" Korra retold her initial desperation to find Kaji when she had been taken by the 'Northern Water Tribe' assassins and how she had pleaded for the centipede's help. She recalled the deal, and the debt that needed to be paid. Finally, she finished with the recollection of her dream and the necklace and her horrible purpose. Her tears flowed faster and with more violence as she hiccupped, "I don't know how I am going to do this. If I choose Kaji, the balance is forfeit. If I choose the world, I condemn the woman I love to an eternity of pain and agony. If I betray Koh, there is no telling what he will do to me, to Kaji… what do I do?"

Katara remained silent. Korra could sense that, as phenomenal as it was, her mentor was at a loss for what to do. Her hand continued to rub against Korra's back, warming the girl as the wool of her clothes heated from the friction.

In the end, she simply said quietly, in a ghostly murmur, "The Order is ready. Iroh II and the White Lotus will perform a covert surprise attack on Kaji at Omashu. We leave tomorrow and we need you to lead us Korra."

Korra's spirits plummeted. She did not think that she could come up with a solution in a hundred years, much less the few days that it would take them to come upon Omashu. Her throat constricted to the point that she could only nod.

Katara looked down at her pupil, feeling a great pain in her chest as she saw the girl struggle under her burdens. She tried to remember, to even envision ever having to deal with something like the complicated problem facing Korra. She came up empty. All she could think of now, under the circumstances, was standing by the girl and supporting her in whatever decision she made. She would surely need that support. Even if Katara could not think of a parallel situation, she knew the feeling of having to make a choice that she would have to carry for the rest of her life, and she was determined to give Korra as much love as she needed to get her through it.

"I will find a way to beat him," Korra said. She wished that she sounded stronger, more sure of herself, but it took practically all of her strength to simply get that out. She held no delusions of coming out of this unscathed, hell alive even, but she had to try. She had to save Kaji and herself somehow or else she would never be able to look at herself in a mirror ever again. "I will find a way to save us both… or at least save her and the world."

Katara held Korra at arm's length. Her eyes were darker than usual, angry even, "Korra, you listen to me! Do not become the martyr. Koh is not someone to be trivialized. If it means sacrificing one… I cannot condone forfeiting Kaji's life, not even after all that she had done, but you are the one I want to come back. I want to see you smiling and alive. You deserve it, above all others!"

Korra smiled sadly at the woman who had nurtured and cherished her throughout her life. She saw herself reflected in those pools of sapphire and knew that she could not do what Katara wanted. The old waterbender had raised her to be the hero, to be the one who tried to save as many as she could and then more. And Korra would never have had it any other way. Katara seemed to have recognized the look in Korra's eyes and joined the Avatar in her tears. Both clung to each other as though for the last time. Korra was unsure of what was to unfold once she reached Omashu, but she knew that, somehow, she would either escape with Kaji, or die with her morals intact.

"I have to save them, Master Katara," she said, strength finally flowering her voice, flowing with determination and the fire that Koh had somehow managed to extinguish, "It's in my job description; that or die trying."

**P.S: Short, I know. But next chapter is when things get intense so hold onto your hats people. God, that made me sound nerdy... anyway, almost up to 350 pages on my Word Document. I can brag to my old English teacher now. How is THAT for too short. :P I can do it if I want to! Hrrmm, sorry. Well, I do believe that is it. Review, Happy Easter and such, hope you all got chocolate, even if you don't celebrate. I don't really celebrate it and I still stuffed my face, because chocolate is good and any excuse to have it is a good excuse to me. So.. until next time. For any fan of Game of Thrones it's back on and I am going on a marathon of it! Yes! But I will forsake that marathon if there are reviews... hint hint. bye now.**


	31. Omashu

**A/N: Hello, I am back and I am BLONDE! Finally mustered up the courage to color it, and now I am that much closer to being like my role model (BBC's Merlin- Morguase!) But you guys probably don't care about that. You want to read the next installation and thus, you shall. Thank you for everyone who has hung in there for this story and I hope you guys continue to love/like/tolerate it as it pleases you. REVIEW and I will love you! See, it rhymes. :)**

**Disclaimer: I own a fanfiction account, but nothing more than that, unfortunately.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"I have chosen…" she could not say the words. She refused to say them. Koh was well aware of her course of action; she felt no obligation to force herself into uttering those vile words.

"Then take it," the pendant was offered once more; it tinkled as it hit the palm of the Faceless hand.

"Present it to her as a token of your love. It will open a gateway that will allow her to come into the Spirit World, body and mind and all. After that, I will consider the debt repaid, and you will no longer have to fear me Avatar… unless you request my aid in the future."

_Body and mind and all,_ she repeated. _Body and mind and all._ Her eyes snapped up to meet the hard brown ones ingrained in the cadaver where its buttons used to be. _Body,_ she realized. Koh did not simply want Kaji's face; he wanted her to become another of his Faceless, a servant for eternity, and he needed her body for it.

"I will find a way to beat him," Korra said. "I will find a way to save us both… or at least save her and the world."

Omashu stood quiet in the daylight, the sun at its apex as the clock chimed noon and the restless streets became packed with people going to take their lunch breaks. The restaurants that had been deserted for the majority of the morning were suddenly flooded by a mob of hungry men, women, and children ready to taste the culinary treasures housed within. The pyramidal towers that housed the inner city and the Palace glistened in the backdrop, sitting regally and soaking in the sun's warmth along with their patrons. The platform of the city had been extended by the earthbending corps again, each year spreading ever closer to the other side of the gorge so as to accommodate the rising population and prosperity within its protective outcropping. As such, it was a constant job to keep the base of the 'island' from thinning to the point where it could no longer support the giant landmass above it.

Tunnels ran all along the base, providing swift methods of reaching a problem area were there ever to be a need. The passages were constructed in such a way as to not weaken the foundation of the trunk of stone holding up the bustling metropolis, but were also large enough to comfortably fit the men who would be sliding through them at a moment's notice.

It was through those tunnels that Korra and a small garrison of troops moved into at the day of their counter-invasion. The earthbenders were in charge of providing the mobility but, though she had initially objected, Korra sat forlorn in the corner of the platform-turned-elevator as it was propelled through the massive hole in the mountain. She had gotten practically no sleep the entire journey there, always paranoid over another message from Koh or a nightmare depicting the gruesome outcomes that inevitably awaited her and the Fire Lord should she fail to think of something. So she slept lightly and troublesomely, not getting more than three or four hours a night if she was lucky or too tired to dream. Katara had given her drafts made from teas or medicinal waters, but nothing seemed to help. In the end, Korra simply resigned herself to the fact that she would not be gaining much dormancy and instead placed her efforts into uncovering a method for outwitting the vile Spirit who plagued her.

Up until that point, Korra had not had a solid modus operandi come forth, but she had decided that telling Kaji was imperative. The girl had a knack for creating intricate plans and actually foreseeing the unexpected obstacles that loomed after each stage and decision. Korra felt the tightness in her stomach, flinching as the bile rose up her esophagus and burned her throat. She had not been this nervous about seeing someone since… well, ever. Confronting Kaji again; it felt like a dream. The time had gone by as slow as honey at times, but looking back at the two weeks they had spent in preparation, Korra felt herself thoroughly unprepared for what she had to do.

The fingers of her left hand played with the betrothal necklace she had put on, the one of fire, while her right hand clenched tightly around the bone necklace stuffed safely in her pants pocket. She did not believe that Koh was a mind reader, but she knew that he had his ways of spying in on her and she had no intention of revealing her ulterior motives just yet. She had to get to Kaji first, before he could whisk her away to the Spirit World where he was strong. Here, she still held the upper hand.

The elevator stopped. They had reached the inner sanctum of the city. Above their heads, through the walls of sandstone and granite, lay the lower chambers of the Palace. The Palace where Kaji had been taking up residence, and which she was undoubtedly now occupying. Katara's informants had reassured her of the fire prodigy's presence within the walls of Omashu, cautioning that she would not remain for long. Korra's face was graced with a tired smile, thinking of the impatience with which Kaji awaited her return to the Fire Nation. As much as she had claimed to have travelled around the world, Korra could sense the longing expressed in those gold eyes every time she faced south and west.

"Avatar," a man called to her. He was the one who had led the group of young boys and girls from the taken capital of the Northern Water Tribe. The rest of the men, about thirty as they did not wish to attract excess attention, had already disembarked the transport and were gathering around Master Katara and General Iroh II.

"I am coming," Korra announced, letting go of the twin necklaces and pushing off of her hands to stand. She dropped down and strutted over to where Tenzin looked on to his mother; Lin Beifong standing off to his other side. He acknowledged her with his own smile, not even bothering to hide his concern over her wellbeing anymore. Lin, as was her nature, nodded and resumed the appraisal of her weapons. Korra was glad that at least someone was not looking at her as though she would fall apart like some cracked china that had been poorly glued together. She was also done looking strong for the rest of them. She had no more of that left. All Korra had to keep her going now, was the conviction she held within her heart: the promise that she would save them; her and them; her above all, but Korra did not say it. Long ago she had learned from a skinny, strange Guru, that lying to herself would help no one, so Korra no longer tried to crush her feelings or stow them away. Kaji was the one she loved, and she would let her go if needs be, but not before; never before.

Iroh walked forward, calling the attention of those assembled, "We all know what awaits us in those walls," his voice was somber, but confident. Korra envied him, "There will be Earth Kingdom guards and Fire Nation guards. You may end up fighting your own people, but remember, we must hold them until Korra is able to get to Kaji. Once we have the Fire Lord in our custody, they should surrender. I hold no delusions over the necessity of killing. Do what you deem you must in order to keep yourselves in the fight. That is all."

Where usually there would be a flagrant 'Hurrah' of some sort, the men stayed silent. They knew the necessity of keeping invisible until the last possible moment. Instead, each man and woman raised his or her hand into the air in salute, showing their determination and understanding. Korra contemplated the stern complexions, each holding their personal motivations; motivations each one hoped would be enough to get them through the mission. Survival, pride, loved ones, whatever it took to get them out alive.

Out of the corner of her eye, Korra spotted the tall, stern figure of Kirei. He stood amongst the throng to her right, wearing a plain ensemble of loose pants and a long-sleeved button-up jacket. His hair had been pulled up into a bun to keep the strands from distracting him by falling in his face. The face, turned up to gaze unseeing at the ceiling as though he could almost imagine what his daughter, after four or five years of not seeing her, would look like. A subconscious reaction passed through him, stiffening his posture before he turned to look at her; their eyes met for a moment before he let his gaze fall and moved to lose himself in the crowd. Korra wondered whether he held regrets about what he had told her, about his plea for his daughter's death. Pity coiled up in her heart. The man had been broken so many times a gust of wind could have dissolved him into nothing but dust.

"Korra," Katara came to place a hand on her shoulder, "Tenzin and I will accompany you and Lin as we search for the Fire Lord," she turned to the metalbender before requesting, "Use you seismic sense to locate her. The sooner we find the girl, the sooner we finish this."

A rumble of earth shook through the room as a large portion of the wall was removed by a conjoined effort from the earthbenders in their small battalion. Iroh II then took the lead, moving them to their positions from which they would create the necessary distraction to hide Korra's own progress through the palace. The darkness of the earth took them all, each looking like some kind of sacrifice walking into the maw of a giant beast of stone and rock. Korra only hoped that most of them were able to come out of it whole.

There was a slight tremble in the earth, so small that it would have normally gone through undetected or barely noted as a natural occurrence. Normally, however, was not the adjective to describe the day as watched through the iridescent golden eyes of the Fire Lord sitting in the plush cushions of the throne she lounged in. It was almost comical, how sparse the palace had been before she came; everything was undecorated stone. The furniture, stone; the walls and floors and ceiling, stone; the statues, sculptures, even the mosaics ornamenting some of the few upper corridors leading past upper class guest quarters, all stone. The firebender had made sure to set up a more comfortable atmosphere, importing a plethora of furnishings and embroidered wall carpets portraying scenes of battle and adventure from the past century and the ancient myths of the four continents. The bourgeois had not been pleased at first, but had become keen enough with time and the hinted fact that none of their opinions held any value to their new overlord.

As it was, none of the paintings or comforts held any of their former aesthetic qualities in Kaji's mind. All she could think on was the minor shift in the foundation of the giant rock plateau and the look Izuru Kain had shared with her the moment it had occurred. It meant one thing and one thing only. _They were here._ The adolescent huffed in exasperation, knowing full well that the countermeasure had been inevitable, expected even. Still, her limbs felt leaden and her tongue was swollen in the stuffiness of the chambers. The heat, usually so pleasing to her own scorching skin, felt oppressive amidst the dusty old catacombs that passed as a royal establishment.

"Is the waterbender among them?" Kaji asked, her tone bored and heavy.

Izuru lifted her head from where she had been focusing on the ground. Kaji was loath to admit it, but the earthbender's seismic sense was a subject with which she felt thoroughly enraptured. To be able to feel the enemy and visualize them even with layers upon layers of solid crust between oneself and the opponent was something she found immensely useful. The twinge of jealousy was not an emotion Kaji liked possessing, as it hinted at poorly veiled weakness; weakness she could not afford.

"Yes, and they have quite a few followers by the feel of it," came the answer. Kaji's eyes lit up with the prospect of another triumph.

"How many in all?"

"No more than three dozen or so."

Kaji's eyebrows came together. It was suicide to think of assaulting the capital of the Fire Nation stronghold within the Earth Kingdom. Such folly may have been expected from an amateur adventurer or prospect hero, but the water witch was crafty, that Kaji knew. Katara would not risk such a small force to ascertain a victory unless she held some form of a trump card she had not played yet. The fires in the holsters lining the square room flared in interchangeable flashes of azure and sunburst. She had been awaiting this. If it was indeed the Avatar herself come to face her, then Kaji would be more than- Her inner mantra hit a snag at the thought. She was more than ready to… what? Her inner eyes conjured up those sapphire blue irises, spread wide in joy as the gleaming smile stretched across the tight cheeks and strong jaw line. Kaji's fire faltered, sputtering in the receptacles in a mirage of her heart. If she were faced with the option of killing Korra, or even of wounding her to the point of incapacitation, would she be able to go through with it? Her mind wrapped around the notion, but her subconscious pulled back as if stung.

"Your thoughts?" Izuru cut in. She knew the girl sitting a few steps above her on the raised platform was wrestling with some beast within and the earthbender found herself fighting the urge to roll her eyes. The firebender's antics were becoming more of a burden than anything else. When it became obvious that her question was going to be blatantly ignored, she did the least sensible thing, and pushed on, "You know that she isn't going to hold back with you."

Kaji's eyes flickered to catch the cool jade pools of the woman sharing the room with her. As obvious as the possibility had been, the firebender had never once considered Korra's conviction of beating her. Mentally kicking herself, Kaji reset her train of thought to mustering up the battle strategies they had been discussing before being so subtly interrupted. Whatever would come to pass, with or without Korra there, Kaji would have to adapt to it.

Still, it would not hurt to make sure she knew what she would be dealing with in a few sparse minutes, "Is the Avatar there?"

"You know she is," Izuru responded as one would speak to an idiot. The glare shot her way brought her back to her place. As conflicted as the firebender was, she was not weak; if anything, the constant stress edging its way across the Fire Lord's face made her even more dangerous. Izuru was not one for living her life as a charred shell because her tongue slipped.

"They are most probably using the bulk of their force as a distraction," Kaji muttered, drawing invisible lines on the armrest of the throne, "in which case we will send double their number in guards to quell the situation quickly and efficiently."

"What of the girl?" Izuru inspected her nails, each one flawless as the rest.

"The girl will come for me. As will the old waterbending woman. Your spies, did they affirm any other identities within the masses?" Kaji was certain that Katara would not allow Korra to face her without some form of defense. The firebender needed to know how many that shield would consist of and who they were.

"The airbender, Tenzin, and the chief of the police force in Republic City, Lin Beifong, were identified. There is also General Iroh II of the international armada fleet. As for the rest, they claim to be a part of the ancient organization known as the White Lotus-"

"Yes, I have been made aware," Kaji interjected, happy to parade her own intelligence and reconnaissance abilities; it was always prudent to implicate to those beneath her that she was not overly reliant on them. Her nails drummed against the seat impatiently. She had hoped to evade the girl until they were able to meet on her own terms, but with the added insight of the metalbender woman, the situation had become somewhat more serious. If Kaji was to choose her battlefield, she would have to do so soon, else her own connection to the floor under her feet would be her undoing.

"Is that old arena, the one in which Avatar Aang faced his trials under Bumi, still under repair?" the sand on the floor would make for a hazy visibility, or so she hoped, for the Beifong woman. It was not perfect, but it would have to do. In a city made of the natural element of her adversaries, Kaji had small choice in the matter. Her inner grandmother berated her for prolonging her stay in the Earth capital for so long, but it was too late to bemoan past decisions.

"I believe it to be finished," Izuru replied, puzzlement in her voice.

"We face them there. I wish to see how many follow the Avatar. If the number is small enough, we can split them and take them ourselves. If it turns out to be an overwhelming amount, then we retreat to the outer courtyard where the reserve troops will be stationed."

"Understood," Izuru fell to her knees and placed her forehead against her cupped fingers. Bowing to the Fire Lord had become easier with each display of power from the girl. Both Kaji and Izuru knew that the allegiance of the earthbender was to the strongest, and Kaji was sure to continue to keep her affluence on display. Standing, the Dai Li agent wasted no more time before sweeping from the room and moving to relay information to the troops stationed around the palace. Kaji took a few moments to catch her breath and keep her wits about her before strutting to the shaded stands overlooking the extensive arena of the old deceased king. Locating two agents stationed as her silent protectors, she moved to instruct them in the preparation of her little disappearing act.

The trajectory of Korra's small group was in the opposite direction of the main battalion. They emerged from the depths through a narrower, less conspicuous, tunnel courtesy of Lin, into a boiler room of some sort. The steaming pipelines effectively cut out all noise associated with their presence, the high-pitched shrieking of pressure gates opening and closing making Korra's ears ring and her eardrums ache. Two workers were milling around, inspecting the meters and their shaking arrows, indicative of elements pertaining to the men's jobs. Both were evaded rather than incapacitated as they wanted to leave as many unaware of their presence as possible. The rest of the expansive floor was easily traversed through the metalbender's mental map of the place.

The second, third and fourth stories likewise held no sign of Kaji. Lin, having only met the girl a few times during her stay in Republic City and then once more from the hull of the ship returning the fire prodigy to her homeland, had minor difficulties in discerning the objective from a few of the servant girls flitting around or the occasional soldier. Outside- the sounds carried easily through the massive labyrinth of corridors and hallways- the group could hear the clash of elements as their masters fought one another. Cries of battle and shouts of command mingled with the crashes of rock and bursts of fire or water until it was all just one drone of commotion. The security had been dispatched to the source of the violence, making it quite easy for them to slip through the chinks in the soldiers' parameter.

It was not until the sixth floor, the central one if Lin's senses had not failed them- which they hoped to the high Spirits they had not- that the metalbender felt the strong presence of a powerful firebender. The doorway separating Korra from her fate was made of thick stone slabs that stretched from floor to ceiling and were wider than all four of them standing in a line with their arms outstretched. Still, the Avatar had a sinking sensation that told her no girth would be thick enough to quell her nerves. She tried to breathe, to steady the chi wildly coursing through her fibrous peripheral nervous system. Her heart refused to slow. The adrenaline pumped into even the dead cells of her nails and hair creating a weightlessness within the fibers of her being; as though she was floating in a bubble made of soap and water that could pop and send her plummeting down at any second.

As if through magic, horrible dark magic, the slabs rotated inward, opening three gateways leading into the spacious room beyond. Moving forward, Korra was surprised to find herself standing on a balcony overlooking a wide, ovular arena. The sand covering the area had been smoothed to the point that it could have been a murky mirror of a hazy, smoggy sunrise. Stands were shaded behind the archways that supported the convex roof above their heads; the illusion of the architecture hid the height of the weathered rock to the point that Korra felt like she could touch it were she to stretch her hand out and lift onto her toes. As it was, she had no time to indulge her curiosity as a decent-sized boulder came hurtling into the small outcropping, flinging sharp debris at her as half of the balcony was sent blasting into the air. Easily, she shielded herself and her group from the deluge of rubble by erecting a barrier of rock from the leftover stone beneath her feet. Not waiting for their assailant to get another shot, she burst clear of her miniature aegis and flipped to the dusty floor. A cloud of unsettled microscopic rocks had been uplifted to cloud the center of the sand in a spherical bulb.

From within, an offensive of stone daggers broke through and came at her at speeds only attainable through complex earthbending. Korra barely had enough time to dodge them and keep on her feet. The next wave was more expected and less difficult to outmaneuver. Her arms swept into a wide downward block, carrying a field of water with it before solidifying into a wall of ice. The rocks embedded into it with force enough for their points to break through, yet they left Korra's skin to remain untouched by the lethal projectiles. Only then did Korra notice movement coming up from behind her. A massive billow of air pushed the remaining field of opaque sand into the corners of the stadium, revealing their hidden foe. To Korra's dismay, but not utter surprise, the figure facing them was standing alone and most certainly was not the intended target of their search. Out of the corner of her eye, the Avatar could see that Lin was canvassing their immediate location for any sign of the hidden firebender who had been present within the massive expanse of empty space only minutes beforehand.

"I can't sense her," Lin informed them, bewilderment lacing her frustration.

"How?" Katara growled, "You were sensing her presence before we entered-"

"I know," Lin bit back. She hated the mind games the Fire Nation girl was playing. The doubles walking along the multiple levels and corridors of the palace had cost them valuable time. The lives of many of her comrades may have become forfeit in the fruitless escapades, not to mention the fact that the metalbender took immense pride in her gift. Kaji's ghostly act only compounded on the mounting headache already throbbing through the woman's temples.

"Could you have mistaken her for-" Katara was about to hypothesize a glitch in Lin's seismic sense, but did not get far as the other woman retorted with a vigorous shake of her head.

"It was the firebender. Of that I am certain."

"Where is she?" Korra growled at the figure clothed in evergreen robes woven with gold embroidery. In the center of her chest was the familiar bronze ring surrounding the inner circle that symbolized the ranks of the Dai Li. The crisp black hair waved slightly in the last vestiges of the gale summoned by Tenzin seconds before. Clear, crisp emerald eyes lazily took in the line of benders tensed in the ready positions of their respective bending arts while a smirk played on the corners of the perfect pale lips. The arena had gone deathly silent after the ringing voice of the Avatar dissipated.

Izuru's chuckle cut through the air as easily as her stone knives had, "What's wrong? Am I not good enough for you? You've hurt my feelings."

Korra's teeth clenched, her hands itching to unleash her energy in a show of destruction with Izuru as the converging point of all of her elemental rage. From her right, Katara moved forward and raised her own vocals in a commanding hiss that translated across the barren landscape with more magnitude than should have been possible for the light words, "We have you outnumbered. Give up the location of the Fire Lord and we may consider sparing you from life imprisonment."

Izuru seemed to find the scarcely veiled threat as comical as Korra's forceful inquiry. Her hands gripped the sides of her torso and she doubled over as the fit of giggles wracked through her system. When she was done and her eyes had once again come up to encircle them, she spoke, "Do you honestly think that you can frighten me into giving away Fire Lord Kaji's location?"

There was a slight pause; Korra felt the creeping sensation that the opposing earthbender was allowing them time to contemplate the hidden absurdity of their bumbling statements.

"I fear her wrath far more than I fear your justice."

A slight shift under Korra's feet was all the warning she had before the earth erupted beneath her. The column that shot her into the air was flat topped- her quick reflexes saving her from being speared on the intended point of the spike- propelling her into a back flip to the sandy ground below. She had little time to see that the others had been scattered by a similar array of earthen spearheads sticking like porcupine quills from the floor of the arena. Then she was running. Tenzin came up beside her and they both wound their hands in the funneling motions of airbending. The tube that lashed out at the Dai Li agent was dispersed by a looming earth wall erected at the last second. Katara's water octopus sent its multiple tentacles around the barrier, contacting something that was too hard to be flesh. The fortifications broke into rubble as Izuru slid into the air on a sort of stone ribbon that wound around the four other benders, drawing them into a close circle. Lin's foot struck the ground hard enough for a small mushroom cloud of dust to burst forth before it was dispelled by a massive boulder flying toward the oncoming green-garbed fighter. Izuru's eyes narrowed as she constructed a swift, makeshift blockade. The same emerald eyes widened as the rock near her face cracked and then disintegrated under the force of the spinning spherical boulder. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground a few yards away from the group following the Avatar, her entire body screaming in pain. Something warm was oozing from a deep cut over her eye and the stinging in her side was slowly growing in intensity. She groaned, but picked herself up without too much effort. Taking in a quick overview of her status, she thanked the Spirits that no bones had been broken in her tumble.

Korra saw the Dai Li agent's body flung past the raised seats and columns of the arena before finally coming to the floor and slowing to a skidding halt. Her eyes focused in on the slight tremors of the crumpled figure, hoping that the earthbender had been put out of commission by Lin's powerful offensive. Unfortunately, her prayers were dashed as Izuru moved her hands under her chest and heaved herself onto her knees. Shakily, the woman stood, swaying slightly before regaining some semblance of balance. Her gaze was still centered on the ruins of her outfit and the bruises no doubt hidden beneath it. Korra's instincts kicked into high gear and she sprang, taking advantage of the opportunity presented to her. She would not allow Kain to get another chance at obstructing them. Korra had to find Kaji; that was her only purpose.

Her fist, encircled in a fluid curtain of water borrowed from Master Katara's water skin, shot out from her side as the young Avatar closed the distance between her and her foe. There was less than a yard of space, a foot, an inch; Izuru's head moved out of the way barely a second before Korra's clenched hand struck the air where her jaw had been. The momentum carried the girl over and it took minimal effort for the Dai Li woman to pivot so that she was behind her. Strong hands, their small size masking the power within them quite effectively, slammed into Korra's kidneys. The shock sent jolting through her frame was enough to floor her instantaneously. The younger girl gasped for breath even as the sands filled her gaping mouth and drying her tongue and palate. Words and shouts were being said, but none of them made sense, as though spoken much too fast in a flurry of alien languages.

A boom resounded somewhere far away, or perhaps it was only a few feet from where she was prone on the arena's soil. Among the torrent of thoughts, Korra tried to will herself up, to stand. She had been hit in the kidneys more than once before and, yeah, it had hurt like a bitch, yet never had such a target incapacitated her so profoundly. Her fingers tingled, the first sensation from her extremities currently, which could only be taken as a good sign. _Perhaps, if I could just get my hands to pull me up,_ her intentions were barely formulated when a sudden pressure, more of a striking blow, hit her precisely in the back of the neck. The vague vision of light brown and yellow sand was completely engulfed by a black veil as Korra lost consciousness.

Kaji's eyes widened as Izuru was sent into the air. She had not expected the older Beifong woman to hold such immense skill and dexterity. Watching as her subordinate regained her feet, the Fire Lord mused as to whether her intervention would become necessary. If anything, she was not averse to simply leaving the retched Earth Kingdom city to the hands of this White Lotus group. World dominion did not occur overnight, and she had time enough, but Kaji had never been one to accept a failure. Omashu was hers through diplomatic victory and a brilliant execution of espionage; she was not too fond of having it taken by three senile fools and a smattering of untrained youths.

A yell, recognizably Korra's, brought the firebender's mind back into the battle. Balanced in her net hung securely in the shadows, Kaji held a wonderfully comprehensive view of the unfolding skirmish without being detected. Even the Beifong's seismic sense could not pick up on her presence when she was no longer connected to the woman's beloved element. The rope was slightly chafing to her delicate skin, the discomfort concentrated centrally on her exposed arms and the small of her back where the fabric of her shirt had drawn up from her periodic shuffling, but it was a small price to pay. Golden eyes looked down from the spider's nest she had constructed, peering in approval as Izuru deftly evaded Korra's attack and circled to catch her off balance and unguarded. A small, condescending voice in the back of her head bemoaned Korra's choice of attacking with water. Had she chosen flames, Izuru would not have slipped by unscathed. The mistake cost the younger girl dearly, as she was soon petrified by Izuru's jab to her kidney organs. Kaji winced as the limp form of the Avatar hit the turf of the coliseum, sighing in resignation that the fight was nearly done. Still, it was not unpleasant to see the fruition of her efforts in the Dai Li agent; Izuru had been forthcoming in the few little chi blocking techniques that Kaji had exhibited to her. She was also more than pleased that Izuru had followed her explicit instructions to not overly harm the younger girl without questioning the firebender's motives.

With Korra dispatched for the time being, the Fire Lord lazily shifted in her web. Her hands gripped at the cords, securing a grip so that her descent was measured and graceful. She would not have her entrance tarnished by a slight slip that would cause her to fall in an undignified manner to the stone below.

The Beifong woman's eyes met hers immediately after the toe of her right boot met the plain under her. She smiled, relishing in the sense of fear running alongside the adrenaline of the grey-haired woman. Others soon came to notice the earthbender's stillness; turning their confusion melted away into apprehension as Kaji slunk out from the shadows like some feral panther revealing itself to its prey before inevitably devouring it.

"Kaji," said girl's eyebrows rose in surprise at the manner with which her name came from behind the lips of the waterbender facing her. Katara's tone toward her, where it had always been hostile and bitter, was now laced with something unrecognizable. It was almost soft in its mannerism.

"Master Katara," Kaji made sure to emphasize the utter contempt she felt. If the older woman pitied her for some inexplicable reason, Kaji would make sure to teach the old water witch that sympathy was the last thing she needed. "I would say that it was a pleasure… but then I would be lying."

Instead of the angered remark directed in retaliation, Katara stayed silent. A slight shake of her head as she dropped her eyes to stare sadly at Kaji's feet was the only response given to the increasingly annoyed firebender. Kaji bit back another barbed taunt, refusing to let the bubbling fury under her skin chip her calm façade. She would not show the waterbender that her silence held more of an effect on her than any chastising words ever could.

"About time," Izuru huffed next to her. Kaji gave her a sparing glance, noting that the earthbender looked much worse for wear up close than when she had been observing from afar.

"It wasn't my fault that you got too full of yourself and overestimated your abilities," Kaji shrugged. Izuru glared at her, before smirking in understanding. Kaji was concerned, even if it was only minimally, but she also was confident in the earthbender's battle prowess. "I suppose I will have to finish them for you."

Lin and Tenzin stepped back into defensive stances, hands up and blocking their torsos from whatever oncoming attack the Fire Lord was planning. Katara stood ahead of them, but not too far, waiting in a relaxed manner with her feet slightly apart and her hands hanging at her sides. Much as she had expected, the girl sunk down into the tell-tale crouch that preceded the movements to harness the electricity dancing within her stomach. Kaji's hands began to circle in the concentric arcs that would bring forth her ultimate weapon, the fire so pure that it could tear apart the very atoms within the air into their various protons and electrons before they gradually regained their original, stable forms once more. The purple lightening danced along her arms and coalesced at the apex of her pointer and middle fingers; the very muscles beneath the skin tightened with the shocks coursing through the cells and tissues. Her being was on fire, her chi ignited with such raw burning energy that the entire universe, time itself, seemed to consist of only the sensation of her movements as she slowly unwound herself and loosed the vortex of bristling white. But it did not come. Kaji's eyes widened in disbelief as her hand shot out and the sparks fizzled out on the tips of her fingers. She quickly, almost sloppily, repeated the motions, only to come to the same conclusion. Her lightening died before it could even come into existence outside of her body. Her heart hammered as the bottled energy sped the contractions of her cardiac muscles and her head started to feel light.

Something shoved her aside with surprising force, knocking her to her hands and knees. The action itself was barely noticed by the shocked firebender, the rough grit of the dirt clenched between her white-knuckled fists registering only slightly amidst the utter desperation that was suffocating Kaji. She had never been without her lightening, not once in her furthest memories.

"-ji, -aji, Kaji!" a hand connected with her left cheek with enough force to break the dried skin of her lips and cause a small trickle of blood to run down her chin until it dripped onto her extended arms. Her golden eyes moved up to see who had dared to strike her. There were no longer any distinctions between ally and enemy for her; there was only the pain in her chest as the electrical buildup within her was completely extinguished. Izuru Kain screamed her name again, arms shaking and outstretched as she conjured barrier after barrier only to have them torn apart by the conjoined forces of the three master benders on the other side.

Anger was the first emotion to break through the paralysis of Kaji's disbelief. Her hands balled into fists, erupting in a brilliant flash of indigo fire. The heat given off by the burning air was not nearly as high as Kaji was used to and it felt devoid of the friendliness and familiarity of her beloved cerulean, but the fire was still many degrees hotter than the pathetic orange flames of the lesser skilled. Her irises flashed metallic and luminous as she broke Izuru's weakening rock wall and thrust her body forward. Tenzin was in direct line with Kaji's furious onslaught. His desperate attempt at a buffeting current only served to mildly slow her progress towards him. The airbender was only saved from severe burns to his face and chest by his fluid evasive technique. The distance, however, was not enough to save him from the intense heat that roiled off of the rain of fire and his clothes spontaneously combusted from the excitement of the molecules as their bonds disintegrated. Katara rushed to douse her son, drenching the airbender with the last of her water from the skin on her hip. Lin cried out a warning to her from behind, saving her from the crazed firebender who had turned on the heel of her grounded foot and come back at her victims with a backhand arc of fire. With no more water to speak of, Katara was forced into a veritable corner. She saw Lin moving to try and get to her, but the earthbender was cut off by an eruption of sandstone spines rising from the broken plates of the earth.

Kaji growled in frustration as her flames dissipated into nothingness. She had yet to actually burn anything, only serving to increase her irritation. Her hands stiffened into claws, nails sharpened into fine points. She wanted to feel the soft, malleable flesh give way as they ripped through sinew. Her movements were somewhat jaunty, not thoroughly connected in their transitions from one step to another. Still, she was practically on top of the old Water Tribeswoman and she could almost taste her blood on the tip of her tongue. She would have the symbol of everything she had been taught to hate right in the palm of her hand, and she would squeeze it until there was nothing left but ash and cracked bone. The one who broke her grandmother, the one who stole Korra from her, the one who was to blame for the loss of her bending; Kaji didn't even care if her allegations made no sense, she just wanted to KILL SOMETHING!

The Fire Lord's hands dripped molten sapphire, grasping at the air where Katara had stood, only to connect with nothing but air. Kaji hissed as some of the fire fell on her naked wrist and singed the epithelial layer. Her pupils roamed her immediate surroundings, searching for the prize denied her. Vaguely she recognized Izuru fending off the two others and the fallen figure dressed in blue still on the ground though showing slight signs of regaining control of her limbs. Those minor details were lost quickly in the fringes of red that ringed her vision. Then she found her. The smile that graced Kaji's face was nothing short of Draconic, monstrous in the fear it induced, but Katara had become accustomed to far darker things. Before Kaji could even take another step toward her, Katara stretched out her hands and felt for the girl's essence.

The blood within Kaji's body froze in its flow. Her pupils constricted and dilated, but the rest of her could no longer move. It felt as though she was a puppet held captive by her master's strings. Terror gripped her as her mind cleared and her analytical faculties asserted their dominance within her cerebrum. Katara's hands slowly came back to her body before languidly moving out in push and pull motions. Kaji's mind furiously raced to come up with some sort of way to tear herself away from Katara's controlling bloodbending, but not enough oxygen was getting to her brain and panic was setting in as though she were slowly being submerged into subzero waters, left to drown and freeze. Her knees gave out and hit the ground hard enough to bruise the bone. Pain, apparently, was not at all affected by the perverse waterbending as Kaji could feel the throbbing already. That and every cell in her body was crying out for the oxygen deprived by Katara's manipulation. Her eyelids were growing heavy as her lungs ceased to move, or was it her diaphragm that could no longer support them? Either way, she was dying of asphyxiation. She was dying. She was- _NO!_

Katara grimaced at the slow, losing fight as the firebender gradually gave in to her system's demand to shut down. She did not wish for the girl to suffer, but if she was not careful, she could easily end up killing her. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead to rest at the tip of her nose. Katara ignored the ticklish feeling and the accompanying urge to scratch it away. She had to concentrate on her task. She had to keep control.

The process was almost done. The waterbender could feel the pulse rate diminishing with each passing second. Kaji would soon fall into a catatonic sleep and all of this would be over, finished.

_Thump._

Slower. Katara hated the interconnectedness brought about by taking over a person's chi flow. The desperate, fleeting thrashes of the mind to keep conscious were almost too scarring to bear, and she still was unsure as to how she could survive such an experience with her sanity intact.

_Thump. _

It was taking longer than she was expecting it to. Even the strongest opponent did not stand a chance without air coming into their brain, but Kaji showed no signs of dormancy and it had been over five minutes.

_Thump. Thump. Thump, Thump, THUMP! THUMP!_

Kaji's hands ignited in a flurry of red, violet, and royal blue. Her body sprang up from where she had been kneeling like some filthy peasant before the water witch. She took a massive intake of breath before releasing it in a scream that shook the foundations of the city on the plateau. Fire spewed from her opened maw, released as dragon's fire, streaming without inhibition. It was apparent that the firebender's power was far beyond her ability to suppress it and Katara knew that if she did not somehow redirect the inferno, everyone in the room would be nothing more than charred specks lining the walls. Using the last vestige of influence over Kaji's muscular system, the waterbender contracted the disks making up the back of Kaji's neck causing the girl's head to bend back and the jet of fire to collide with the high ceiling above them. The massive explosion that accompanied the meeting of the immoveable rock and the invincible deluge of overheated energy was enough to deafen them and release small trickles of crimson liquid from their ears. Katara was thrown clean across the expanse of the arena, coming to a stop only when she hit the stricken form of Lin as she watched the display of force in awe. Having temporarily saved them all from being burned alive, Katara slumped tiredly against the steel-plated back of the earthbending woman and refused to move further.

Kaji found herself likewise jettisoned from her initial position. Her back ached horribly from where her inertia had been counteracted by the unforgiving stones marking the end of the battlefield and the edge of the onlooker sections. Her eyes squinted as she tried to dispel the ache of her head with a light massage of her temples, but her movements ceased as her eyes fell on the yawning hole in the center of the arched ceiling. A frighteningly large crack was sprouting from the edge of the perforation and it seemed to be becoming increasingly large. A pebble fell from the fissure and landed with a clunk on the ground far below. The patrons of the room, before frozen from confusion and uncertainty, were now frozen in horror as they watched more pebbles come clattering down. Then it became more than mere pebbles. Chunks of the ceiling caved in one by one as the crater increased and sucked the upper story down on top of them.

Kaji's eyes landed on Korra's body, lying right in the path of some of the larger boulders pulled to her with frightening velocity. Instinctually, the firebender shot a wide ball of navy fire at the oncoming meteor before lunging toward her once-lover-turned-foe. One of the smaller fragments was faster than the Fire Lord was and struck the girl on the back of her head, crumpling her as she tried to regain her feet. Kaji shrieked something unintelligible before sending her smoldering chi to her feet and pushing herself faster toward the Avatar. Her hands clasped onto fabric and flesh without remorse- undoubtedly leaving gashes in Korra's tanned skin. Blinded by desperation and survival, Kaji found that she could not remember how she managed to get them into one of the adjacent corridors running along the inner coliseum; all she knew was that Korra was safely cradled in her arms again and they were alive. Something warm and sticky spilled over Kaji's hand. She looked down, worried that she had spoken too soon, and found that the hand supporting Korra's head was soaked in blood. Paying no heed to the protest of her abused knees, Kaji rocketed down the hall toward her chambers, silently cursing her sluggishness. She would need bandages and ointment. She would not lose Korra to some damned inanimate abiotic failure in the palace's architecture.

Korra hated waking up with no idea as to her whereabouts. The hanging drapes covered the portions of the room where she suspected the windows were located so she could not even discern whether it was still day or if night had fallen already. She attempted to push herself onto her elbows, but the wave of nausea that hit her soon brought her back to her lying position. The cushions under her head felt nice and soft, but the material covering part of the back of her skull was scratchy and uncomfortable. Her fingers moved to feel around it, but something warm and inviting caught them before she had the chance to actually make contact with the area.

"You shouldn't touch the gauze. I had to wrap it tightly enough so as to stem the bleeding, but loosely so as to not cause you too much pain," a soothing voice said from somewhere above her head and outside of her line of sight.

"Wh-where?" her throat felt parched resulting in her words coming out hoarse and scratchy.

"Don't worry, you're safe here," was her answer. Korra sighed and sunk further into her lovely pillow. She did not know why she felt the overwhelming need to trust the phantom speaking to her, but she figured that if it meant her any harm, it would not have gone through the trouble of bandaging her up.

_Bandages? _she thought, befuddled. _Why did I need bandages?_ Everything suddenly came back into focus. The infiltration of Omashu, now under the Fire Nation's jurisdiction; the fight with Izuru Kain and getting paralyzed somehow; the sharp jab to the back of her head; everything was clear as a crisp mountain spring's reflection of the sky. Pain forgotten, Korra shot out of the comfort of the small, green and gold embroidered futon. Her hand reached out to steady her when the vertigo overcame even her high strung synapse commands, falling through air until it was grabbed by that same warmth. Unlike the first time though, she was finally able to see the physical embodiment of the calming heat. The porcelain hand that held hers, the other one wrapped around her shoulders, steadying her like a protective crutch. There were also a few strands of obsidian hair brushing against her cheeks and the dip of her collarbone, vaguely, hauntingly familiar.

"Idiot," it was said in a not unkind manner, more of a reprimand than an insult. "You shouldn't be moving yet."

"K-Kaji?" Korra was almost afraid of the answer. How was she supposed to react if it was? For it certainly had to be the infamous firebender who still held her heart- or a majority of it anyway.

"Who else?" Korra could not see the playful smile, but she knew it was there. She could not understand how, after everything that had happened between them, the prodigy was still able to joke with her as if they were on some sort of hiatus.

"You… How? We… The arena… and then… something crashed," Korra could not think of the correct questions and every time she tried to collect herself, her raging headache returned with a vengeance.

"Shush," Kaji's face appeared before her, hands moving to cup her face in between splayed fingers as though she was trying to touch every square inch of skin she could reach. "You need to rest."

Korra's mind clicked shut. She could only think with her textile organs, loving the proximity of Kaji and reveling in the small breeze created by her exhaled breath reaching the flushed skin of Korra's cheeks. Her heartbeat increased exponentially as Kaji's thumb subconsciously moved to trace her swollen bottom lip, reminiscent of all of the other time when it was not the firebender's finger, but her tongue tracing the soft flesh. Both girls didn't notice moving closer to each other until they were practically inhaling the other's exhalations. Kaji was the first to snap out of the trance her former lover held her in. Her grip on Korra's chin, tilting it closer to her face, loosened, though she did not break the contact for fear of pushing Korra away. Korra herself felt the shift and found herself questioning whether she wanted to breach the distance or if she should shove the firebender away. Frozen, they stood looking at each other with a mixture of fear and longing.

"I-" Kaji was about to say when her words were cut off by Korra's lips sealing her own. The blossoming warmth in the pit of her stomach erupted into her heart and then proceeded to ignite her lungs and throat. Korra leaned on her toes, furtively inviting the firebender to take in more of her into her mouth. Kaji obliged, running her tongue over the contours of Korra's lips before slipping through her parted teeth and exploring the heaven she had not had the pleasure of tasting for what seemed like eons. Korra moaned against the gentleness with which Kaji was taking her. She wanted the roughness of the firebender's passion; she wanted her thirst for the girl to be sated, even when she knew that a thousand kisses like this one would not be near enough. One at a time, they would have to somehow gradually build up to it. Korra's arms wrapped themselves behind Kaji's neck and brought her down so that they were both sitting on the sofa cushions, before digging into the supple tresses she had missed for so long. Kaji, careful to avoid exacerbating Korra's injury, shifted so that she was on top of the Avatar. Her body pressed against the younger girl's as though it was a puzzle piece finally fitting into its intended groove. Roaming hands moved against Korra's sensitive spots, caressing her with the added friction of the fabric to create a delicious feeling of arousal in her lower abdomen. Her legs moved to wrap themselves around her firebender, allowing Kaji's hips to grind into the area wanting the most attention. Just as Korra felt herself nearing the edge, ready to give in to the practiced tongue now tracing its way down her neckline, she saw something fall from her pocket and onto the floor. In her current condition, the Avatar was more than willing to forget about whatever it was as nothing could have been nigh as important as feeling Kaji inside of her again, but, ever the courteous one –overly so in Korra's muddled opinion- Kaji did not leave whatever it had been ignored on the pristine carpet.

"What is that?" the firebender murmured as she got off of Korra, eliciting a disappointed and slightly pouty growl from her love's darkened lips.

"I don't care," Korra bemoaned the sudden cold that hit her with the absence of the other girl's body heat. "Are you really that interested? Enough to stop right in the middle of-"

Korra's tirade was cut short by a slight, very girly, squeak of delight. Perplexed, Korra peered over the hunched shoulders of the Fire Lord to see what could have elicited such an anomalous reaction. That was when she saw it. The white bone carved in the form of Water Tribe waves was resting delicately in Kaji's open palm. Turning around, Kaji's lit eyes met with Korra's own. A rush of guilt abruptly marred the beautiful smile stretching across the pale features of the firebender. She had thrown everything away, thrown Korra's feelings away, without even considering offering the girl a fair chance. It had been Kaji's own fault for pushing the younger girl away from her in the first place.

"Korra, I am so so-"

"NO!" Korra's scream shook Kaji's very spirit. Her immediate thought was that the betrothal necklace had not been meant for her and that, somehow, she had only further alienated the girl's affections. It was only after noticing that Korra's horror was not directed at her, but solely on the necklace residing in her hand, that Kaji began to question such an explanation. That was also when her chest spontaneously combusted in a crippling wave of agony.

Katara looked at where the rubble had settled, cutting the oval almost exactly in half. Her hands shook as she used them to painstakingly guide her aging body into a sitting position. Her deep set sapphire eyes took in the deathly quiet left in the wake of the massive shower of debris. Furniture, carpets, decorations, sculptures, the entirety of the floor above them, lay in shattered or tattered ruin; crushed under the massive stones that had once supported them. A shuffling of rock next to her startled the old master, turning her attention to a very filthy, very beige earthbender. At first, she was afraid that it was the Dai Li agent as the only discernible feature on the figure was a piece of green cloth clenched in the right hand, but Katara's fears turned to naught as Lin sneezed away the layer of dust obscuring her face.

"Lin," Katara beamed. "I am glad you are alright."

Lin's only response was a grunt before she flopped onto her back and attempted to disregard her complaining joints and ligaments. In between a series of wracking coughing fits, she was able to spit out one name, "Tenzin?"

Katara frantically took in the rest of their side of the arena, searching for a sign that her son was alive and hopefully not hurt too badly. Her sigh of relief at seeing him sitting propped against the smoothed wall along the perimeter of the sanded area was indication enough to the exhausted metalbender that her concern was unfounded.

"Tenzin," Katara called. The man's head moved up and he gave a weak wave to show that he was feeling fine. Another groan, from somewhere to her far left, indicated that another, less welcome, occupant was coming to as well. Looking over at the earthbender curled up in a fetal position, Katara couldn't help but grimace at what she saw there. Izuru had not been quite as fortunate as the rest of them, probably caught among the worst of the stone downpour, and had taken quite a bit of damage. Her hair was matted with sweat and blood coming from a gash on her forehead, her shoulder had been completely wrenched from its socket, leaving it looking boneless and disfigured, and her uniform had been ripped open on her right side, revealing a series of large bruises and what closely resembled a series of fractured ribs.

"I suppose I should ensure that our opponent does not die of internal bleeding," Katara muttered to herself, before rising. Moving over to the shuddering girl, Katara reached for her storage of water, only to find the pouch completely emptied. Worry crinkled the wizened face, emphasizing the prevalent crow's feet and underlining bags below Katara's eyes. "Damn it."

"Mother," Tenzin's voice reached her, hard and brittle. "I don't see Korra."

Katara's eyes widened with concern. Her first thought was of the worst, but she quickly quelled the despair by reminding herself that Korra would not have been killed so easily. She could not have died. It had to be impossible. It was impossible… as long as she kept repeating those words, Katara was sure that…

"I have to find her," she stated firmly.

"She's down the hall on the other side of the divide, to the right. There is a small room on the left side after you've gone about twenty yards or so," Lin informed, her fingers petting the ground under her and staring into nothingness.

"I will find her," Katara announced. "Tenzin, see if you can't find someone to give this girl medical attention. I fear she does not have long without proper treatment."

"Mother," Tenzin seemed about to protest. Katara's look worked well to stop him in his tracks. Shaking his head in resignation, he finally amended, "I will see what I can do for her."

"Thank you both," Katara said before starting to make her way through the maze of embedded rock and broken furnishings. The way was difficult for her relatively frail body, much less resilient than her younger days, but she held onto her convictions. She would find Korra. She would save her, before the girl did something that would endanger her life, or worse, her very spirit and the spirits of all of the Avatars before her and those to come.

Korra watched as though from behind a glass screen as Kaji's spine arched in on itself and her mouth opened in a silent cry. Everything was happening so slowly at first. The necklace falling from the contorted fingers twitching with the spasms shooting through Kaji's frame; the Fire Lord's shoulders rolling back until the bone was on the verge of popping out of place; the heaving of Kaji's chest as her heart fought to keep beating despite the pain that came with each throb. Then it began to move fast, or perhaps the speed was back to normal, only distorted by the previous lethargy of the passing events. Korra lunged at Kaji as her body slumped to the floor, cold and lifeless. Korra's wails ricocheted off of the walls until they died into silent sobs. The tears streaming down soaked the front of Kaji's shirt, compressing the fabric to the curves of her chest and her neckline.

Korra nearly didn't even notice the white medallion glowing a soft milky hue, her grief was so encompassing. It was only when she heard the audible gasp from the door, now flung open, and saw the light reflected off of Master Katara's darkened pupils, that she beheld Kaji's body –and her own as she was still clinging to it with a vice grip- bathed in iridescence. And then, by some ethereal magic that she could not fathom, she was whisked away from the room with its long drapes and soft futon, and sent into the oblivion that constructed Koh's prison.

_Koh,_ she thought with dismay. _He cannot have her. He will not have her. Kaji is mine!_ And then there was a burst of sultry, yellowish light and Korra knew no more.

**P.S: Next chapter will probably be up soonish, maybe, but AP tests are coming up so my update schedule may continue to be somewhat skewed until after May 15th. If I am still writing this at that time, then updates should be more frequent. I apologize for any grammar mistakes as I revised this quickly and at like, 11:00 pm so, yeah. Well, hope you enjoyed it. REVIEW!**

**P.S.S: Over 200,000 words! I am seriously so fucking amazed at how I haven't run out of plot yet. Not meaning to toot my own horn or anything.**

**P.S.S.S: Toodles. :) REVIEW!**


	32. The Spirit World (Part I)

**A/N: Hello! Back again after a week and a little bit... I think. Keeping track has never been a strength of mine. I can't believe that last update I completely fogot about the promised party for the 50th review of Events Unexpected. As I do not actually know any of you dear readers... at least, I don't think I do... we must be a bit eccentric about it. So, bring your favorite food and drink whenever you read this, and treat yourself! Then, imagine all of the rest of the wonderful people out there reading this, and picture them enjoying their favorite dish or dessert or whatever! Yes, yes! And therefore we have one massive party spanning the globe... sounds awesome doesn't it? Well, if anything, at least you now get to enjoy something good while reading something, hopefully, equally as good. I was a bit bummed to see that no one gave feedback for the previous chapter, but I didn't throw a party so I guess we can call it even. That means no excuses this time though,so click that little button and send me a message. It can be full of insults and degredations for all I care, just as long as it is something. Smiley faces, frowny faces, drunken faces, all acceptable as well. And now I have wasted enough of your time. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Legend of Korra then I would probably make the Fire Nation the supreme Empire of the World! As I do not, it stays on its little island at the corner of the map, all lonely and little... and alone.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Tunnels ran all along the base, providing swift methods of reaching a problem area were there ever to be a need. The passages were constructed in such a way as to not weaken the foundation of the trunk of stone holding up the bustling metropolis, but were also large enough to comfortably fit the men who would be sliding through them at a moment's notice. It was through those tunnels that Korra and a small garrison of troops moved into at the day of their counter-invasion.

"Is that old arena, the one in which Avatar Aang faced his trials under Bumi, still under repair?" the sand on the floor would make for a hazy visibility, or so she hoped, for the Beifong woman. It was not perfect, but it would have to do. In a city made of the natural element of her adversaries, Kaji had small choice in the matter.

"I believe it to be finished," Izuru replied, puzzlement in her voice.

"We face them there."

"Where is she?" Korra growled at the figure clothed in evergreen robes woven with gold embroidery.

Kaji's hands began to circle in the concentric arcs that would bring forth her ultimate weapon, the fire so pure that it could tear apart the very atoms within the air into their various protons and electrons before they gradually regained their original, stable forms once more. The purple lightening danced along her arms and coalesced at the apex of her pointer and middle fingers; the very muscles beneath the skin tightened with the shocks coursing through the cells and tissues. But it did not come. Kaji's eyes widened in disbelief as her hand shot out and the sparks fizzled out on the tips of her fingers. She quickly, almost sloppily, repeated the motions, only to come to the same conclusion. Her lightening died before it could even come into existence outside of her body.

The white bone carved in the form of Water Tribe waves was resting delicately in Kaji's open palm.

"NO!"

_Koh,_ she thought with dismay. _He cannot have her. He will not have her. Kaji is mine!_ And then there was a burst of sultry, yellowish light and Korra knew no more.

Korra's head felt like an ostrich-horse had trampled all over it. Something sticky was holding her hair flush against her forehead and the sweltering heat beating down upon her body was not helping matters in the least. She tried to move a hand to cover her reddened face, but all she managed was a twitch from her left index finger. That too soon became unbearably exerting and she felt the digit fall back against the grainy surface she was currently sprawled over. From under her eyelids, her eyes perceived an angry vision of red, marking that the sun was currently sheathing her in its unwelcome heat. She wondered briefly how she had ended up outside when she could have sworn that she had been inside… where had she been? Her mind raced in circles, trying to discern anything past her name and the fact that it was _blistering_ hot!

After another, she could not really think of a suitable time increment as she had no indication of its passage, Korra was able to laboriously sweep her tongue over her parched lips, tasting salt and brine as though she had been drinking sea water. Cracks along her skin were tinged in dried metallic blood and stung slightly with each flicker of movement. Korra swallowed the lump in her throat, hating the sensation of dust or sand scraping along her esophagus as peristalsis sent the little particles to her stomach.

_Hot,_ the word repeated in endless loops in her cerebrum, bouncing and echoing from the walls of her skull and swimming through the cerebral fluids coursing in and out of the cortex. The pounding near her temples had subsided to a rhythmic throb, sending her in and out of a lull. Korra could not think to call it sleep as she felt quite awake, despite having yet mustered the inner strength and willpower to open her eyes.

_Hot._ Would it end any time soon? She really needed a drink, something liquid. Water would be preferable. _Master Katara's pouch has water. She was with me, I think. _It was inexplicable how she knew that the waterbender had been in the general vicinity as Korra still hadn't the smallest inkling as to where she was or how she had gotten wherever 'here' was, but it was almost innate; the thought of Katara's presence scratching at her memory, goading it in some direction, perhaps to unlock the enigma.

_There had been something rancid and a futon. _Korra wondered at the randomness with which the items came to mind. Had the futon been rancid? No, the futon had been warm and soft and smelled of cinnamon and spice, just like the person who had undoubtedly lounged in it before it had been converted into a makeshift hospital stretcher. She had been wrapped in gauze because… because… Korra growled inwardly, her vocal chords feeling ashen and unusable. It was like piecing together a giant puzzle with over half of the pieces facing down. Korra had to turn over each one in turn before making any connections.

Before long, she felt that she was well enough to make another attempt at moving something. Her entire hand was able to strain itself aloft for three intakes of breath before flopping down. Korra's joints felt arthritic, weak and disintegrating. Still, she figured that, if she was able to pull that off, her eyelids could not pose much more of a challenge.

The first thing she saw was the mesh of her knitted eyelashes. Dirt caked them, making them stick to each other and lessening the amount of light filtering through. Gritting her teeth, Korra broke through the light crust of sand and squinted into the pale yellow that infiltrated her retina. There seemed to be light coming from every direction all at once, bathing her, baking her until her skin felt like some overcooked chicken-pig. She opened them wider, gradually, easing into seeing color after quite a long time in darkness.

A gust of oppressively warm air caressed her face, rummaging her unruly brown locks, swatting the hair strands over Korra's face and tickling her nose until she could no longer hold in the sneeze. The violent upheaval of her diaphragm jolted her entire being, acting like an electrical current surging along her nerves to excite her dormant heart. Mind in overdrive, Korra crunched her abdominal muscles and shot into a sitting position. Her eyes flickered back and forth, but she could hardly see anything beyond the stretch of her arm. The rest had been lost within a vortex of shifting sand and billowing torrential winds. Finding her voice, the Avatar called out into the streaming gale; she held no words on her tongue, just primal calls, searching for an indication, a proof of still being alive. Her voice cried out until she was raw and her throat was clogged up with the aerial sands of the desert floor. Her hands clawed at the miniscule rocks underneath her until blood dripped from her palms and she pulled them back, shaking, into her lap. All the while, only one question loomed in her mind: Had Koh taken them? Then, soon after: _Them? _Who else had she been thinking of?

Something cold grabbed a hold of her collar from behind. With superhuman strength, she was lurched onto her feet and swiftly pulled backwards into the swirling mists of dune and dust. Her feet, still too unable to support her weight, caved in beneath her and, with a conjoined yelp from Korra and her unknown companion, she tumbled down with the other person.

Low to the ground, the sounds of howling wind and the maddening rush of air and earth were gone, replaced by silence and stillness as if they had never been in existence. The light filtered in from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, basking Korra in heat and eradicating any form of shadow or darkness. Tears, unbidden, came to her eyes. The light stung, penetrating painfully into her optic nerve and scorching her rods to nothing. The cool grip was back then, pulling her up, stumbling on hands and feet; up and out of the bone-dry landscape and back into the winds and suffocating storm. She blindly followed, finally able to overcome the sickness within her body that had kept her from complete locomotion.

Once or twice, Korra could have sworn that her companion had attempted to call out to her, but the words were lost in the thrum of the gravel and dirt. All she could see of the stranger was an indigo clothed hand gripping her left forearm and tugging it into the murky dimness created by the sandstorm's billows. As such, the Avatar was uncertain as to whether she was truly hearing a spoken word, or if it was all simply the howling winds rushing in and out of her ears.

_One foot in front of the other, _by the tenth time Korra repeated the phrase to herself she had turned it into a sort of sing-song lyric. Her eyes drifted shut, trusting in her phantom guide to show her the way out of this. The memory fragments still flickering behind her lids told her that she was in the Spirit World, or somewhere connected to it in some way. She remembered the white bone necklace but couldn't seem to connect it to its importance. There was also something else nagging at her, holding her a captive in her head; she was supposed to be remembering something, or someone.

_One foot in front of the oth-_ she was ungraciously dumped onto a hard stone floor. The roaring had dulled to a faint hum and Korra could no longer feel the barrage of earth scraping against her face and the exposed skin of her arms and legs. A groan sounded from somewhere beside her, but she refused to open her eyes and acknowledge it. She held the lids shut tight, waiting for some kind of command, a set of directions, specifying what she should do next.

"Korra," a gentle voice drifted over to her. It was male, but light; not gruff like some of the baritones she had heard from her father or teachers. "Korra, open your eyes. Korra."

Her cerulean irises constricted, opening up her pupils to the darkness encompassing her. About four-fifths of the space around her was complete blackness with only the occasional dark grey outline. A beam of grey illumination filtered in through a half-circle opening to her right. Outside, she could see the sandstorm raging in all of its fury. Further inspection did nothing to reveal the bodiless voice that came with her awakening. It was only obsidian and granite.

"Where- " a small crack in her lips broke apart further with the enunciation and she could feel the light trickle of blood run down her chin before she quickly wiped it away. Moving her hand up so that it was only a few inches away from her nose, she gasped at its transparent cobalt nature. The tank top and pants she had on were also quite ethereal, holding no consistency whatsoever, against the rock below. Korra shook her head, wondering why, of all the times she set foot in the Spirit World with normal coloration and solidity, she had become a veritable ghost now. The metallic liquid smudged on the back of her hand resembled something closer to ectoplasm than actual blood.

A shift beside her, nothing more than a quiet rustle of clothing and skin against stone, alerted her to the presence of another within her small sanctuary. Korra's eyes, having gradually adjusted to the dank little space, found the source of the commotion to be a huddled figure lying to her right. The silhouette groaned, louder than before, and rolled over until a lazy hand wrapped itself around Korra's outstretched legs. The heat coming from the figure was enough to boil water, causing the unfortunate Avatar to spring back with a yelp. Nursing her scalded skin, she marveled at how quickly the kinetic energy had saturated through her clothing. Ghost clothing simply did not act as a good insulator apparently.

The figure had picked itself off of the floor and commenced to rub its head, possibly nursing an injury attained at some point during Korra's frantic display. Korra briefly pondered on the obvious phenomenon that was the shaded figure. If it had been another spirit, then it would have been outlined in the same glow that had overtaken her body. Instead, it was sheathed in shadows, even its clothing remained cloaked from her curious eyes.

"Who are you?" she managed to say after a few colorful words came spilling out of the hidden mouth of her companion.

"Huh?" the whiplash from turning so quickly staggered the figure ever so slightly. A hand came to rest upon the person's brow as if trying to ward off a headache. "Korra?"

"Kaji?" Korra gasped. She reached out, tugging at the wrappings that hid the girl's body. The scraps of cloth fell away, revealing the signature black, silky hair and glistening golden eyes that were most assuredly Kaji. The memories came swirling back in a deluge at the familiar sight of the firebender. Omashu, Izuru Kain, the fight, the k-k-kiss, and the necklace; each little thing fell into place with the fluidity of water. Kaji's lips quirked into a smile before she threw herself on top of a startled Avatar. Korra's skin shrunk away from the intensity of sweltering fire that enveloped her body along with the firebender. Reflectively, she drew both hands between herself and the other girl, flinching as her palms burst into blisters, and forcibly pried her from her body. Scooting away, she couldn't help but sigh as her burned hands met the cool surface of the rock face beside her thighs. Looking up, she almost regretted her actions, as her eyes met the hurt-filled ones of the Fire Lord.

"I'm sorry," they said unanimously, blushing at how rushed the words came out.

Kaji slid back until her back hit the opposite wall of the cave, closing her eyes and resting her head against the solid stone behind her. A hand absentmindedly drifted to her side where Korra could see a dark stain spreading over her clothing.

"Kaji?" she started hesitantly, afraid of what the splatter represented. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm," Kaji inquired before following Korra's gaze and finding the area where her hand was resting. "Oh, that. Don't worry. You're past life, Aang, bandaged it up before he left to find you."

"Aang was here?" Korra exclaimed. If the former Avatar had indeed been there, then why had he not stayed? Had someone else fallen into oblivion with them, or had something called him away from them. All Korra knew was that she would have felt immensely better with the elder man around. He could have explained why she was not one of Koh's masks and Kaji was not a Faceless.

"Yeah," Kaji nodded. "And to be honest, I think it was the most awkward few hours of my life. I mean, most of the time I was somewhere between consciousness and a coma, but the times I was coherent enough to actually hold a conversation with the guy… well, let's just say that I enjoy your Avatar cycle more than his."

Korra gaped at the girl, speaking so nonchalantly as though this was a merry little jaunt in the gardens of the Fire Nation Palace instead of a life-or-death situation, in the Spirit World no less. Seemingly unfazed by the incredulity directed at her, Kaji happily continued her analysis of the older monk, "and I sort of had a stupid epiphany… or something of its like… about how, since you two are connected and he was together with the Water Tribe woman, that Katara, then it was almost like I was dating the person she had been married to. I swear, if I hadn't already lost all of the contents of my stomach, I might have hurled after that one… but then I remembered that its only a shared spirit and the person is their own sort of person, so everything was better after that-"

"How long have we been here?" Korra interrupted. She decided to ignore the blatant disrespect toward her past life and her beloved mentor, attributing the uncharacteristic word vomit to the stress on Kaji's body and mind caused by the journey to the stellar plain.

"To be quite honest, I have no idea. The storm hasn't stopped since I came to and the light never seems to dim or brighten in accordance to a time shift," Kaji replied thoughtfully, resting her head in her palm whilst simultaneously propping up the arm with a bent knee. Her silky hair, pulled up in a rather messy ponytail, swished to cascade down a sagging shoulder.

"I see," the news was unwelcome, but not thoroughly unexpected. The Spirit World functioned on different principles than the corporeal one. The transition between night and day was trivial if not completely nonexistent in some areas. And even if they had been able to somehow discern the passage of time in the particular section they occupied, there was no way to know that it was synchronized with the passage of earth or any of the other domains. "Well, I suppose we should start seeing about getting ourselves out of here."

The firebender shook her head in a negative, "Your past reincarnation was good at healing, but he couldn't fix everything."

Korra was about to inquire as to what exactly Kaji was referring to, when the girl pulled back the draping covering her lower body. A grisly strip of dark dried liquid, resembling oil in its distorted hue, spread across a makeshift splint and bandaging like some twisting river; it was clear that the firebender was going to have trouble walking for quite a while yet. Had Korra been able to provide some form of crutch, they might have stood a chance, but with the peculiar increase in temperature exuding from the pale girl's pores, they were veritably stuck in the cavern for the duration of Kaji's recovery.

"Don't worry though, he said that it should be alright in another two weeks or so; something about increased healing in the Spirit World, completely went over my head though. I was always quite content with letting Agni's priests worry about the afterlife while I was busy learning more pertinent techniques," Kaji lightly ran a finger down the expanse of the blotchy cloth.

"And Aang; he just left?" Korra was certain that her mentor would not have simply abandoned them to fend for themselves in the unknown environment.

"Well, he said that he would return with supplies… but that was quite a while ago. I mean, as far as I can tell. The storm hasn't stopped since he brought you. And that was quite a while ago too, though I was still somewhat out of it then."

Korra's mind spun. She had not been unconscious for that long! She could not have been. Her knees had barely hit the ground before the voice had bid her to open her eyes. How then, had Aang taken her to the cave, nursed her back to relative health, and then left, all without her awakening. Again, the randomness of the metaphysical plain was garnering a headache for her.

"…" Kaji looked at the other girl's confused expression. She did not wish to admit it, but she was feeling very unsettled by how events were progressing. She had no inkling as to how to react to being dragged through some portal by a betrothal necklace that had been in Korra's pocket. The other girl had seemingly not wanted her to touch it… which led her to conclude that Korra had known information about the pendant's abilities beforehand. That too, was disconcerting. She did not care for being hypocritical and blaming the Avatar for keeping things from her- she had done more than her fair share of deception- but that did not alleviate the crushing force compressing on her heart.

"I wanted to tell you," as though Korra had guessed the firebender's thoughts, she whispered it, almost hoping that, if said quietly, the words would sound more genuine.

"But?"

Korra's sapphire depths shot up, her mouth spewing the words so quickly that they became more of one elongated syllable than an actual phrase, "ThatsnothowImeantit!" Kaji's befuddled face begged for a translation to the sudden outbreak so, abashed, the Tribeswoman repeated, "That isn't how I meant it. I was going to tell you, period. That's why I was at Omashu… not because I wanted to defeat you. I wanted to save you, to keep this from happening, but I was too late. Spirits I was such an idiot to bring that accursed thing."

The Fire Lord pityingly reached out for Korra's hand, drawing concentric circles in the sand that had been blown into the cave, creating a mixture of dank stone and beige dust. The fingers immediately retracted as the firebender's came within proximity of them. Frowning in hurt and confusion, Kaji ceased her advance and moved back. The cave was too small for there to really be any space between them, but she tried her best not to infringe on the strangely distant young girl. What irked the prodigy more than anything was the disparity between the Avatar's behavior before the whole fiasco and the attitude she was displaying now. As far as Kaji was concerned, she could not recall doing anything to piss off the girl… recently. For Agni's sake, Korra had only just woken up a few minutes ago! Kaji could be a pain, she wouldn't deny that, but she couldn't seem to pinpoint what she had done.

Korra curiously observed the blank face of the firebender across from her. It didn't take a vivid imagination to envision the gears turning. It must have been quite the dilemma as it elicited the girl to nibble absentmindedly at her lower lip, almost obsidian in the low lighting. The seventeen year-old grinned to herself, loving how, in the wake of everything, they could find a peaceful moment away from everything.

"Are you upset at me?" it was said aggressively at first, almost irrationally so. Then, catching herself, Kaji added, less menacingly, "Have I said something; done something, to cause you to be angry with me?"

"You mean apart from the entire global war?" Korra teased. It was comical how open Kaji could be at times, her cheeks immediately turning a red to match her nation's flag. Then, puzzled on the cause of the firebender's question, the tan-skinned bender continued, "Why?"

"You won't let me touch you," Kaji's facial veins dilated completely, worsening the color in her cheeks. She hated feeling embarrassed, especially in front of the girl she had seen lying naked beneath her so many times, but the feeling did not go away. "Every time I reach out, you pull back like you're being branded."

It was Korra's turn to give her an incredulous look, "You mean, you don't feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Apparently, the intense discomfort Korra experienced when coming into contact with Kaji was not a shared one. Perhaps the conclusion was a bit delayed as, looking back, it was quite clear that the firebender had not been nearly as explosive in her reactions. Sheepishly, Korra tried to find the best way with which to tell the overreacting firebender that she was fried alive each time they so much as brushed fingertips. Anything less than subtle would probably send Kaji into a guilt-infused tirade.

"W-well, e-every time we, umm, sort of, have any sort of skin or clothing contact… w-well… you sort of… get hot," Korra wanted to smack herself. That was horrible. If anything it left the poor Royal even more perplexed.

"I… am… not quite sure what you mean," Kaji attempted to discern whatever hidden meaning Korra was trying to convey to her, but the descriptions were not much of a help. She got 'hot.' As in, warmer? Or was it… something underlying sexu-

"I mean, like, temperature!" Korra peeped, noticing the golden eyes start to trail down her body and then assess the body in possession of them.

"Oh," Kaji sighed. That, at least, was far less shameful. "Wait, how hot, exactly?"

The Avatar did not need to say anything. The brief squinting of her eyes and the stiffness with which her shoulders hunched against the wall, as though she were a trapped animal surrounded by flames, spoke volumes. Kaji quickly drew herself up, giving as much space as she could without jostling her injured leg and aggravating the bandages along her side.

"It isn't your fault," Korra quickly interjected, noticing the efforts put in by her companion. She did not want Kaji moving, not in her current state. "You had no way of knowing."

"How is it that you can feel it, but I feel nothing?" Kaji's temper flared. She hated it when she was in a situation in which she held no knowledge. Those were the ones that usually left her less than unscathed.

"I don't know," Korra murmured, "but it doesn't matter. We'll just have to wait it out, like your leg. Then, when you can move well enough on your own, we will start to look for a way out of here."

_Optimism_, she told herself, putting on a brave smile. Of course, Kaji being a horrible interpreter of mood when it didn't have anything to do with conquest, snorted in disbelief and muttered darkly, "If the bald guy couldn't find his way in and out of this Agni forsaken desert, how in the hell are we supposed to."

She was promptly flicked in the forehead and, while one girl was complaining over her burned fingers, the other verbally assaulted her with insults and cradled her head in a dainty hand. Both glared at each other before bursting into a fit of laughter. It might have been strained at its foundation, but it made them feel better.

"It's going to be a long two weeks," Korra joked.

"Too true," Kaji smirked.

The sleepy Avatar rubbed her eyelids, forming tie-dyed colors against the black background. Stretching her arms up and arching her back felt good within the cramped space she was sharing with the disheveled Fire National still lying dormant in the innermost area of their cave. Korra did not think of herself as a paranoid individual, nor did she think that a little bit of granite rock could hide them were Koh to truly start searching, but it made her feel slightly better for Kaji to remain sheltered from the outside. That along with the motivation caused by two nights (they had eventually made up a system for telling time, even if it was somewhat flawed) of sleeplessness caused by waking up and finding Kaji missing under a large pile of sand and debris- along with the minor heart attacks that came when she first awoke and found that she was, seemingly, alone- and Korra was happy to take the more uncomfortable spot. Honestly, how the other girl managed to not suffocate under her small dune, Korra would never know.

That night, however, Korra was awoken by a different kind of feeling. Her sleep addled senses took longer to focus in on the disturbance than she would have liked, but in the end, she had unearthed the underlying change. It was quiet, too quiet. For the duration of the five days they had been stuck in the cavern, there had always been the constant presence of rushing wind and billowing dust filling the wordless moments with a blanket of white noise. On that night, it was completely gone, taken, snuffed out of existence.

The adolescent propped herself on her arms before swinging over to lie on the side that would allow her visual access to the outside world. What met her eyes was a sight that took her breath away. The landscape was a glistening river of silver tendrils. The sands had quieted, slumbering in dunes that reached the size of mountains laden with long, metallic ribbons that fit perfectly to their forms. The sky above was black as pitch, dotted with more stars than Korra had seen since she left her tiny village home as a child. They were not simply the white, flickering flames of the heavens either; these were of every color, ranging in hue from copper green to rustic orange. Brilliant yellows danced with serene blues while energetic reds twinkled playfully amidst purple dancers. Three moons hung in the jet blanket, two great massive things whilst the third was a miniature comet. All were glistening in the reflected rays of some distant star, who's in particular, Korra could not have known. Moving out of the rags that were her makeshift bed sheets, the Avatar slowly walked out into the open night; and for the first time in what could have easily passed for millennia, Korra could breathe. She had nearly forgotten what sweetness clung to fresh air. Not the clustered, stale breezes that blew hotly into their small cave, parching their throats and drying the beads of sweat against their feverish brows. This was freedom. This was magnificent.

Excitedly, Korra swept into the entrance of the dark outcropping of stone, calling to her firebender. Kaji would surely appreciate the openness just as much as Korra had. Neither of them were true-bred earthbenders, and both could only take so much enclosure. Being careful not to actually touch the blistering skin of the Royal, Korra nudged the sleeping girl with a densely coiled cloak. Grumbling alerted her to the newfound consciousness finding the stubborn dreamer.

"What is it?" Kaji yawned, sitting up slowly so as to not overextend something in her haste.

"The storm stopped. Come out and see," Korra smiled.

"Huh," the words took some time to fully sink in. Then, dulled brass excited into its usual golden fire and the Fire National picked herself up, leaning heavily on the wall of the cave. "Let me see!"

Korra struggled against the instinct to help Kaji as she half stumbled, half walked into the field of shining starlight. The audible gasp was met with an appreciative grin in agreement. Both girls gave each other a warm look, remarking without words at the wonderment of the spectacle.

Laughing Kaji moved her gaze back to the largest moon, sloping down into a dune to her far left. Korra's silhouette was just barely discernible against its white face. The cool streams of air whisked her tussled hair, wiping away the few particles of dirt that had become stuck in the long locks. Not for the first time did the Fire Lord muse over her past actions and wonder as to whether she had made the correct choice. Could it not have been enough to simply have been Fire Lord? Would it not have been enough to let the world alone, to prolong the tentative peace for only a lifetime more? _Maybe,_ she shook her head dispelling the thoughts, but they kept coming, _Maybe it might be nice to stay here forever with my Avatar. _Kaji blushed at her possessiveness. The question of whether or not Korra still wanted any form of affiliation with the firebender was completely up in the air at the moment. Yes, they had cherished a moment together, but fate seemed keen on keeping them apart. And Kaji found herself questioning her commitments once again. Her tongue swirled over her chapped lips, relishing in the way the cold seemed to stick to them once they were moistened, "This place might actually not be so bad."

Korra glanced over to the outlying dunes. _'Not so bad' she says,_ came the unbidden thought, _as if she has given up. _Movement caught her attention, arms reflexively reaching out to steady the falling person, only to fall short as Kaji's bare knees- her pants torn from the continued usage- crashed into the soft granules packed at the front of their sanctuary. The firebender's arms moved out to try and catch her, but the weight was too much and she had an overwhelming feeling of weakness taking over her entire body. Her face hit the ground in a flurry of displaced sand, causing her to have a minor sneeze attack. Pain was running through her frame, coalescing at her calf, right underneath the wrappings that suddenly felt like they were made of tiny needles biting into her flesh. The once cool night felt stifling, horribly hot. A hand reached for anything that she could use to steady herself, or at least use as leverage to flip herself over so that the pressure of her leg against the grainy earth diminished. Nothing offered itself. Kaji's mouth gaped, trying to let out a scream, a mumble even, but all that the action did was gain her a mouthful of sand; more like coals, it was so heated against her tongue.

Beside her, Korra frantically tried to think of something. She had no idea what had happened. Sure, Kaji had not completely recovered from her injuries, but she had been getting stronger with each passing day. Her journey from the cave's interior had been undeniable proof of that… unless she had overexerted herself in the process. Korra felt the waves of guilt wash over her, heart clenching in sudden shame, but she pushed it down. She would have plenty of time to berate herself and her overexcited nearsightedness after she figured out a way to get Kaji back under shelter.

"Stay here," she said, earning an irritated grumble from the face-down firebender. Of course she was going to stay there. It was not as if Kaji was magically going to hop up and do a jig when her leg felt like it was about to snap in two. Sarcasm was soon blotted out by a fresh wave of agony as her weight slid her down the slight downward slope leading up to the entrance of their temporary living quarters, her wound scraping along the dip as gravity pulled her a few inches further.

"Alright," Korra's bodiless voice came from behind her. "This is going to hurt… a lot."

Kaji groaned, but she couldn't possibly imagine it hurting all that much more. That was, until Korra actually caught her by the waist and practically flung her onto the musky, moth-ridden cloak the Avatar had fetched from inside their cave. Kaji's scream was only outdone by Korra's shriek as her arms burst into boils and blisters from the extended contact to the firebender. Neither one of them moved for another hour or so, heaving and trying to grit their way through the abuse they had inflicted upon each other. Nothing really seemed to alleviate any of the oversensitive nervous cells, but the body grows accustomed to a stimulus quickly, and Korra was soon thereafter able to stand up from the sandy hill where she had fallen shortly after dropping the Fire Lord onto her 'blanket.' Grasping at the corners of the material, she grimaced at the prospect of having to pull the thing with the current state of her fingers and palms. The frantic moans coming from her companion gave her the necessary motivation. That, and she was starting to see a domineering cloud spreading out to the right of them. She could not afford getting caught in a dust storm, and neither could Kaji.

Once back inside, Korra quickly flipped the girl over, using all of her willpower to bend a rock so that it gently scooted the prodigy's body onto her back. Her eyes were glazed and her forehead was beading with sweat. Korra knelt beside the leg still clothed in the stained cloth bandages. She held her breath before propping the leg up on a flat rock and unwinding the thing as fast as her fingers allowed for.

The smell was the first thing that hit her, blood and iron mixed with the sickly sweet scent of festering flesh. Yellow puss lined the edges of blackened muscle tissue. The edges were red and inflamed, swelling the calf to twice its normal size. Korra's hand went to her mouth to suppress her gap reflex, leaving her to dry heave into her palms. She frantically searched for any form of water she could find, but there was none. In desperation she tried to absorb some from her mouth, calling it out of her salivary glands, but there was only the bluish energy that ran through her vascular system. Nothing usable. Kaji reached out to her, frantically grasping for something to hold onto, but the fingers soon went limp as the girl's eyes closed and her breathing became shallow. Despairingly, Korra grabbed the slack hand and pressing it against her tear-stained face. It was only after her sobbing had subsided to dry gasps that she noticed that the skin was no longer burning her. In fact, Kaji's body had mostly cooled, the only patch of warmth lying in the small alcove just below her chest where her heart thrummed rhythmically.

"You're going to be alright," Korra chanted, as much for herself as for the comatose firebender next to her. "You are going to be fine."

**P.S: I know it is a tad boring and slow, but the entire chapter was spanning to be more than twenty or so pages so I decided to split it into a few chapters. Next chapter should be a little more intense... probably. I realized, halfway through editing, that I spelled 'desert' like'dessert' so forgive me if I missed one. I tried my best to catch them but I am human and I have no idea where my damn glasses went. Alright. Please review! It will make me happy and with CST's and AP's coming up, a little bit of happiness goes an extremely long way. Like, to Neptune long. I like that planet, it is blue. Uhh, what happens when I am a zombie after a long day of cramming and feeling guilty about not cramming. REVIEW! And I will give you infinite love! Or not, if you prefer I don't, platonic is doable.**


	33. TSW (Part II) Dreams of Disaster

**A/N: What is this? A new update! Yep, I had some extra time on my hands (or rather, I just didn't feel like studying) so I sat down and started typing until I had another chapter to put up. I am a little flustered with this one because, despite its relevence to the plotline and the relative importance of it in character development, I feel like it is only a filler chapter. I am anxious to get to the angsty, action chapters I have been planning out in between listening to my chemistry teacher and ignoring the rest of my classes.**

**To TaylorLoe: I really appreciated the feedback in your review. I am sorry that I was unable to PM you, but my computer and phone have been on strike for the past week or so. I hope that this chapter clears up some confusion, but if not, there are more explanations to come. Thank you for taking the time and showing the interest in the story to leave me a message.**

**As always, leave me a review. I do read them. I promise. And I usually PM back with virtual cookies. **

**Disclaimer: Nope, last time I checked, I owned nothing.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Her cerulean irises constricted, opening up her pupils to the darkness encompassing her. About four-fifths of the space around her was complete blackness with only the occasional dark grey outline. A beam of grey illumination filtered in through a half-circle opening to her right. Outside, she could see the sandstorm raging in all of its fury. Further inspection did nothing to reveal the bodiless voice that came with her awakening. It was only obsidian and granite.

A hand came to rest upon the person's brow as if trying to ward off a headache. "Korra?"

"Kaji?" Korra gasped.

Kaji's lips quirked into a smile before she threw herself on top of a startled Avatar. Korra's skin shrunk away from the intensity of sweltering fire that enveloped her body along with the firebender. Reflexively, she drew both hands between herself and the other girl, flinching as her palms burst into blisters, and forcibly pried her from her body. Scooting away, she couldn't help but sigh as her burned hands met the cool surface of the rock face beside her thighs.

Kaji reached out to her, frantically grasping for something to hold onto, but the fingers soon went limp as the girl's eyes closed and her breathing became shallow. Despairingly, Korra grabbed the slack hand and pressing it against her tear-stained face. It was only after her sobbing had subsided to dry gasps that she noticed that the skin was no longer burning her. In fact, Kaji's body had mostly cooled, the only patch of warmth lying in the small alcove just below her chest where her heart thrummed rhythmically.

"You're going to be alright," Korra chanted, as much for herself as for the comatose firebender next to her. "You are going to be fine."

Kaji's eyes strained against the flux of ebony miasma swirling about her. Never could she have imagined black to have so many variations in its color. At times, it seemed as though the individual colors would break from the vortex consuming them, streaks of red or blue flashing past the corners of her eyes and vanishing once more amidst the abyss. Once, she thought she might have seen a shape, something more complex than just a straight line of light, but it was never there long enough for her to discern what it could possibly have been. There were voices there sometimes as well. Little trickles of conversation, hisses of conjugation. Whether because they were foreign to her or their magnitude was not strong enough, Kaji was unable to discern what was being said. The prickling in the back of her neck suggested that she was the topic of the conversations.

She had no way to judge the time, or how long she had stayed suspended in the distant reaches of her mind. Hell, she did not even know if it was her mind. The Spirit World was quickly proving to be more than she could fathom, so it was not entirely out of the question for her to have been sucked out of her body and thrown into the bowels of some alternate dimension. _Not the time to be thinking such things,_ she snapped at her growing apprehension. But there was also no way that the Fire Lord could escape; not with her limited resources and knowledge.

A breeze flashed past her right ear, brushing her hair and splaying the strands out in front of her. They were strangely outlined in a pale glow, contrasting what were midnight tresses to the bottomless void. In the wake of such complete charcoal, the pigmentation of her hair seemed near insulting. How could anything of the world of Agni's light ever enter such a place and not feel as if the very attempt at black would only end in futile emptiness.

The breeze was back, passing back across her left ear, tossing more hair into a cascade against Kaji's back. Her eyes flickered in both directions, frantically peering into empty space; there was something there with her and the fear coiling around her heart was slowly constricting the organ to the point of bursting. She could not breathe, but then again, she did not seem to have to.

The first dragon that fell out of the clouds above her head was so pure in its crimson hue as to bring shame to the deepest ruby. Its eyes were fluorescent orange and yellow until the colors ended in the massive slit pupil. The beard bristling from beneath its powerful jaws held the softness of silk and the color of milk. Ear flaps, rustic with the blood pumping through the thin membrane, flared out with the support of the four miniature spines before ending in two prone vermillion horns. Two whiskers the size of tentacles writhed parallel to the serpentine body as it weightlessly plummeted toward the stunned firebender frozen in her place below. Just seconds before actually coming into contact with Kaji's stupefied body, the beast tilted its beautiful head slightly outward, causing its body to follow and bypass the girl without even a slight touch from the serrated protrusions lining its back. Languidly, with the fluidity of blood flowing through a mold, the giant reptile swept upward in a boneless arc. Only once it was looming over the Royal's tiny presence did the creature stop its intricate flight; settling in a squatting position, despite there being no floor to speak of, and flicking its tail in matching bouts of impatience and contempt. The wide orb of sulfur and copper looked to the heavens from which it was birthed in… expectation?

Kaji mimicked the gaze. Her heart was thundering freely, having broken through its chains. She was nervous in the wake of such a creature of power and magic, but she also felt more at ease within the presence. At the very least, she was not alone. Her eyes widened slightly more in response to a second beast falling, much like the first, down. The mouth was open, streaming smoke and clouds of ash into the darkened foliage of inky murkiness. Scales as blue as the deep sea sparkled with their own light, as there was no external source from which they could have reflected it. The muscles underneath caused little shades of aquamarine to lighten the deep sapphire as it pushed its way down with mighty heaves of its wings. Coming down past Kaji's back, the dragon curved into itself before propelling itself up and into a similar position to the one taken by the red dragon. Where there had only been one set of piercing yellow eyes, there were now two, and both were looking down upon the human in exuding expectancy.

Kaji stayed silent, not knowing what she could possibly say that would not sound like an insult before such magnificence. The dragons had been hunted to near extinction so long ago, only two remaining in the world- and those closely guarded by the Sun Warriors. In that knowledge, the Fire Lord felt it incredibly spectacular that she was within a close proximity to such wonders, even with the possibility that they were only figments of the will of the spiritual plain.

"Kaji," the word was spoken in the reprimanding tone her father always took on when she had done something deemed 'obscene' for a lady of her standing. Her head swerved one way and then another, searching for the man who should have accompanied the tone. There was nothing but her and the two ancient firebending masters.

"Kaji, what are you doing?" Another voice, female and biting. Azula's voice.

The Fire Lord pushed against the obsidian folds surrounding her, attempting to move her body without actually knowing whether she should walk or swim. An irrational sense of tension made her fear moving her legs. What if she fell? There was nothing beneath her, just as there was nothing to her right or left or above her. Could she fall if she would not be aware of falling?

"Kaji!" her father shouted as he used to whenever she ignored him. "Are you listening?"

The red dragon opened its mouth before lunging forward. Kaji could not even scream, her lungs were too busy hyperventilating. Her eyes snapped shut, awaiting the inevitable feeling of razor teeth sinking into her pliable flesh. A moment passed. Then another. Then another still. One golden iris peeked out of a small opening in wary eyelids. A body of blue met her gaze, the small scales still tinkling in fairy lights. Opening her eyes fully, the young firebender gasped as she saw the writhing masses of blue and red ringing her. There was no longer any black except for a small hole above her, between two sets of gnashing teeth and tearing claws, and another blotch under her feet where two tails thrashed against each other.

Despite the blatant ferocity with which the serpents attacked each other, not one of them was actually getting injured- at least, to Kaji's observation. Fangs the size of her arm sank into the torrent of scaly armor, breaking the mesh of bone as though it were dough, but not a droplet of blood came from the wounds once the intruding canine was removed. It was comparable with the claws. Each set of five tore at any part of the combatants' bodies, searching for any hold. Gashes of broken scale marked the abused areas, but there was only another layer beneath, sparkling and strong. Meanwhile, voices screamed in high pitched argument, only snippets of which the Royal was actually able to make out as the sounds were mixed with primal snarls and roars of anger.

"- my daughter. You do not control-"

"You are wasting her potential. She must be taught that-"

"You are turning her into a monst-"

"You lost your right to be her father when you pushed her into my arms. It is time to live with the consequences of-"

"Why did you bring me back then? I was never your son-"

"She will become the most powerful bender this world has ever seen. She will match me and perhaps even surpass-"

"Kaji, why did you hurt them? How can you be so cruel?"

"Good, learn that each of us has a place. Those below you are unworthy of pity or mercy."

"I have aided in the birthing of a monstrosity. She killed my beloved in the womb, now she will kill more. What have I done?"

"STOP!" Kaji cried, hands grasping at her ears as the dry sobs crippled her. She did not know whether she was still floating, or falling, or whether she was kneeling against something unseen, but her skeleton felt like it was no longer capable of holding her up. Everything was hurting. In a smaller, shattered plea, she said, "Please, no more."

The sweating had started a few hours after Kaji had collapsed. Along with its appearance came the heat. It was not as intense as it had been before, but Korra knew that it was the effect of a fever. Moans would at times escape the parched lips, turning paler with each passing minute. The Avatar was worried sick, yet she did not allow herself to act upon such feelings. The firebender was strong. She would pull through whatever this was, somehow. Korra just wished that she knew what to make of it. She doubted that it had anything to do with Koh. The centipede had a craving for the dramatic, and she knew that the insect would want her to know that he was taking what was most precious to her. Kaji's body had also shown no signs of turning into one of the Faceless, so there was hope. Or, that was what Korra kept reminding herself. Resolving to not just sit around and further drive herself into madness, Korra made it her primary purose to find any sort of activity to occupy herself with. Easier said than done when she was confined to the space of such a small cave that was probably no more than three yards or so in length and half that much in width.

Dabbing the brow of the pale girl for the fifth time in the total span of ten minutes, the young girl could not help but wonder about the firebender. Reflecting on the past few days in the Spirit World, Korra could not remember a precedent for Kaji's insecurity. Had it been anyone else, the Avatar might have attributed it to being in such an alien circumstance, but the firebender did not seem to be the type to be fazed so drastically by something so simple. There had to be something else. Something deeper within.

Another groan escaped from the parted lips of the firebender. Korra gently placed the rag down, before moving down to the bandaged wound on Kaji's leg. The infection had not spread, rather, it seemed to neither worsen nor progress for the better. The flesh was sticky with perspiration, much like the rest of the slumbering girl's body. The tissue did not bleed, only the occasional slip of puss or fluid ran down the length of the calf at times. That served to calm Korra's nerves slightly.

"Wake up," she whispered as she bound the rags over the gruesome spectacle. She had long since not cared about the utter unsanitary nature of the bindings. The wound seemed unaffected, so the Avatar remained so as well. A bronzed hand reached out to cup a flushed cheek, "Why won't you wake? Where have you lost yourself this time?"

Her answer was silence accompanied with the incessant howl of the sands outside and the creak of rock as it was worn down from the eons of weathering. Not that Korra had expected anything else. Silence had become a staple. Her gaze glossed over the moist brow, not even bothering with the rag anymore. It would do no good now, just as it had not done any good two minutes ago. A rag would not awaken the firebender.

A silly fairy tale slipped through the fatigued edges of Korra's mind. Her hands moved from the pliant skin to the unforgiving stone against which the dreamer rested. Korra's other hand moved to support her, flanking the first hand's position. She hovered over Kaji, feeling her breaths mingle with those expelled every so often from deflated lungs. Her nose was brushing against the proud chin before moving up and to the side to allow Korra more access to what she really wanted. Her lips chastely pressed down on the heated ones beneath her; the skin was not its usual smooth contour, but rough from the abuse it had suffered at the hands of the elements. _And this is where some kind of magic is supposed to awaken you, right?_ Korra could not believe how desperate she was in her delusions. Such things did not happen, because such magic did not exist. Pulling away, she was left feeling less satisfied as opposed to the previous few moments. Reality did not allow for such fantasies as magic, and the Fire Lord stayed asleep, though her chest rose and fell a little more sporadically than before. Chuckling darkly, Korra mused aloud to no one in particular, "I guess our true love wasn't true enough was it?"

The dragons had stopped their writhing and biting. Kaji was starting to feel claustrophobic, so tightly squeezed between the grandiose forms, but neither of the two serpents had done anything to untangle themselves. There was only stillness. The firebender had picked herself up, eventually growing uncomfortable in her fetal position. Her face was flushed from such a display of embarrassing weakness in view of the prominent beasts. Dragons were known for not having much patience for the meek.

"What do you want from me?" she asked. There was no reply. The plethora of sparring words and tirades had dissipated. The heaving of the giants' diaphragms was the only movement. Louder, and with more aggression, Kaji called to them in frustration, "What do you want from me?!"

"I want you to fulfill your purpose," the blue dragon with her grandmother's voice replied first. The dragon's face swooped down into the small space between the entangled mass of scale and muscle. The whiskers outlined the Royal's face and moved down her back as though seeing her through touch. "I want you to bring back the honor of the Fire Nation which I was unable to do along with my predecessors."

Kaji's teeth clenched before she hissed, "I was working on it."

The dragon bared its own fangs. Kaji could see a distorted reflection of herself on each pearly white surface. Angered, the dragon thumped its tail from somewhere beyond the little prison before retorting, "Silence, impudent child. I can feel your doubts. I know everything that you feel, everything that runs through your little head."

"I-" Kaji started, getting instantly interrupted by another growl of warning.

Continuing with the lecture, the blue dragon turned its head slightly so that Kaji was facing a singular, gleaming eye, "I see what you feel for that girl, the Avatar. Your will is weakening, your determination crumbling, your motivation shifting."

"My motivation has always been to please you," the Fire Lord said touchily. The pout on her face might have been uncharacteristic, but she did not appreciate having her resolve questioned by an obvious figment of her imagination.

"Then why do you no longer hold any mastery over your bending? Have you not found it strange? Such complacency."

"Leave her be," the red dragon's body shifted, scraping scales with the blue until tiny sparks flew in all directions. The gap widened and the second head was able to squeeze its way into the confines of the compressed bodies. Kaji couldn't help but feel like an insect in a jar. A jar with two very large, very frightening maws full of teeth hanging from the lid that could never be high enough for her liking.

"You are unwelcome here," the blue snarled. The red ignored the comment, instead wrestling with its combatant for some extra room.

Once it had resigned itself to the fact that there was not a place to spare, the red turned to mirror the sapphire dragon by titling its head so that Kaji was at the center of its left eye. In the same, infernal voice it whispered, "She is free to make her own decisions."

"Oh, yes. So long as they are the ones you wish her to make," the blue grumbled. "Was it not you who asked the Avatar to kill her?"

Kaji's eyes glazed over, a foreign room in a foreign building coming into view. Her head ached from the unfocused nature of the image, but she could well enough pick out the forms of Korra, Katara, and an all too familiar man, sitting at a mahogany table.

The man's head was low, bowed as his mouth moved in sync with the words echoing throughout the space, "I know it is unfair of me to ask this of you, but please stop her. I know that she is my daughter and it is I, as much as Azula, who made her into the… person… that she is, but I have never had the power to nullify her destruction. I am completely loyal to you and the White Lotus and will aid you in all ways I can to take her down, even if it means the loss of her life or my own."

Kaji recoiled from the red dragon, bumping into the long neck of the cerulean fire breather in the process. The red dragon's face was platonic. No emotion flickered across the scaled snout or the fiery jewel within its eye socket. _These creatures only relay what I am thinking,_ Kaji realized. There was more to it, she knew. Otherwise, she would not have been able to witness the memory- or illusion as she would not put it past either of the beasts to lie- that she had never been a part of. Still, oversimplification seemed to be the better route to take when it was becoming obvious that she had little chance of ever truly understanding the strange occurrences within the void. None of it made the pain in her chest any less prominent. The only comfort she held onto was brought about by Korra's words, said with the utmost sincerity: her promise that she had come to save Kaji, not to destroy her in one form or another.

"She does not lie. I said those things, but only because it was my responsibility to keep my legacy from murdering countless people and further shaming the children of Agni. Do you not see?" the question was directed to the Royal. "The world had finally begun to be rid of the fear and hatred that came of the Hundred Year War. And all of that progress vanished in an instant with your ascension to the throne."

Kaji's shoulders stiffened. She would not simply sit and take all of the criticisms of the world. Yes, it had been her mission to take the world for the Land of Kindling Flame, but she had been taught from infancy that that had been the destiny of the nation. Travelling around the world, watching all of the decrepit and abominable conditions of humanity, only served to steel her teachings. Until she had met Korra, she had never seen the beauty of the outside world, never fathomed that there was something good outside of the shores of the Fire Nation. How could she be blamed for years of breeding?

"There have always been four nations. And there must always be four nations. The balance of the world is precarious, and all of this war and conquest, it only serves to bring about the doom of that balance," the red dragon preached.

"It was my right, as the strongest, to rule over those who could not surpass me," Kaji reiterated the lesson that had been given to her for so long. Her heart was not in it though. She had never had much of a sense for compassion, nor was her conscience exercised often, but every time she saw the happiness within Korra's cobalt eyes whenever she did something good she felt as though she was more alive.

"You are a fool to believe in that girl," the blue dragon muttered. "She is naïve. One day, she will awaken and see that this world is ruled by the strong. Whether it is the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom or even those savages in the Tribes, there is a hierarchy built upon power. If a leader is not powerful enough to govern his people, they usurp him; if a person is too weak to protect what is his, then everything is taken from him; if a child cannot learn to grow up fast enough, they are swept away by the flood that is life. You, better than anyone, should know this."

"I-I…" Kaji's face fell, hidden behind a swath of bangs and some of her longer hair. She knew the rules of the world. She had been both strong and weak in order to understand the consequences of both. There was no peace without equal power, and even when there was, it would only last as long as the stalemate did. Humanity, in its nature, would fight. But, the hope and vindication lacing Korra's every action gave pause to the firebender's thoughts. The Avatar fought to keep the balance, even when the entirety of the universe seemed to be against her. Against the overwhelming futility of it all, Korra still could smile and continue on toward her goals and ideals.

"Her naivety is what I love about her," Kaji hummed. "I want to understand it."

"Love," scoffed the red dragon. "You are not a creature meant to feel such a thing."

The blue dragon matched her snarl in retaliation. The fire glinting in the shared pair of golden irises and constricted pupils was apparently lost upon the unwavering serpent, as it continued in Kirei's deep set voice, "You are a killer. Killers are not meant to love. You should be bound in chains so that the world does not need to fear your tyranny. And, one way or another, you will be imprisoned for your transgressions."

"I thought you were supposed to be the supportive one," Kaji muttered sarcastically. All she received was a strange wheezing sound coming from the thing's massive chest. It took a moment for the Fire Lord to realize that she was being laughed at.

"We are neither supportive nor deprecating," it spoke as though to an ignorant child. Kaji scoffed at the last remark, wondering what the hell all of the insults would have been considered if not deprecating. "We are simply opposite faces of the coin of choice. I am surrender. She is fight."

"I choose to fight," Kaji immediately spoke. "Surrender was never an option."

"But, if you fight, you will lose your Avatar."

Kaji's eyes fell. Her chest was constricting again. Eyes focused on the small patch of darkness beyond the entwined scaled entities, she admitted in a lost voice, "I have already lost her. Whether I give in or continue until it is over, it cannot be as it once was."

"Surrender is more open-ended than continuing to fight," the vermillion reptile replied. "You will lose. It is unavoidable. The balance must be kept. And you will either die in your final, glorious battle, or be locked up for all eternity. They will not take another chance with a child of Agni and Azula to be sure. Surrender offers you the option of running."

"Running?" the incredulity with which it was said noted the disbelief felt by the young ruler. "How is that any better than being locked up? I was not born to be a fugitive."

"But there is a small chance that you will escape. Though you do not deserve anything more than to be muzzled like the rabid dog you are, biting at any hand trying to aid you. Staying and fighting a war that you will eventually lose, there is no happy outcome for you, but you will not thrive in chains."

"Fight my little one," the blue dragon's voice was filled with lilting softness. "It is in your blood to fight until you win or die. There is no other option."

Kaji's eyes flickered between the crimson beast resting across from her and the sapphire one by which she stood. Burning yellow orbs gazed back, awaiting a decision. One she did not know how to make. They spoke as if she had already lost. Perhaps she had. There was no way of knowing what was going on in the world outside of the alternate dimension. It could have been months, years even, that she had been gone. Izuru could have lost their hold in the Earth Kingdom. The general in the north, the one whose name she could not conjure up in her mind, could have fallen to a conjoined effort between the international governing body in Republic City. Still, the utter injustice of it all nearly brought her to the brink of insanity. How was it fair that she had to fall in love with the one person who was responsible for defeating people like her? How was it fair that, for some reason far beyond her comprehension, she was sucked into the Spirit World with no way out and no knowledge of what would happen? Korra did not hate her, but they were broken. What had once come so easily for them was only surviving because there was still a natural attraction pulling them together. Still, there were always external factors pushing them apart, to the point that Kaji was no longer certain if the bond they shared would be enough to hold them together. And that was when she knew her decision. She had spent the last few months fighting between what she needed and what she knew was expected of her. Yet, despite everything, all paths led to Korra in the end. Her lightening no longer worked because her driving force had shifted. It was no longer pride or honor or debt that drew her forward, it was the Avatar. And it would always be her. Kaji knew it, felt it in her bones. But she could not use Korra as fuel for her inner flames when her every action went against the young Avatar and her morals. Until she chose, Kaji knew that her flames would not return to their former glory. The knowledge did nothing to ease the burden of the choice, only making her more frustrated in her indecision.

"I want to do all I can to stay near her. Even if it means giving up my birthright and the throne. I would give the world for her. But I cannot run either. She will not see me as a coward. I-I don't know what to choose. But there is time enough for that after I return to the corporeal world."

The dragons both gave snorts of derision, but they were quickly fading away from her. Growls and roars turned into howls and scrapes. Kaji noticed an increase in the temperature around her, making her uncomfortable. Something relatively heavy was wrapped around her torso. Whatever it was quickly jumped back the second she opened her eyes. Mild cursing hit her eardrums as the fogginess of sleep lifted and wakefulness set in.

Korra had not noticed when she had fallen asleep. All she knew was that she had been having a wonderful dream of being in the middle of one of those delicious sundaes sold at a corner vender in Republic City. The mixture of caramel and melted chocolate had sent her taste buds into a tingling bliss. Until the sun started melting it. The cone could not hold in the frozen dessert, and her fingers were soon sticky with the solidifying liquid sugar. The sun was truly beating down on them. It was intensifying in its heat with each passing, rushed lick until, quite spontaneously, Korra's shirt caught on fire.

The dreaming Avatar quickly awoke to the realization that her entire front was truly, on fire. Well, in the figurative sense at least. Her hands, panic driven, pushed her up and away from what must have been hot coals or something of the like. The violent nature of her wakeup call did nothing to help her already disintegrating mood and, like any well mannered child of the modern industrial era, she set to making her emotions known in a colorful string of words that would make many a sailor blush to his ears.

Then she heard it. The small, barely repressed laughter coming from her former bedding before she had escaped its boiling confines. Her eyes moved away from the reddened skin- or as reddened as blue, transparent skin could become-to see a pair of amused eyes watching her from where a certain firebender was lying. Korra's eyes watered slightly. She was unsure as to the cause, splitting it evenly among the pain still lingering in her skin and the fact that her firebender was finally among the living… well, as much as the saying could apply to the Spirit World.

"Kaji! What the hell happened to you?"

Said firebender pressed a palm to her cheek, feeling the slight burn that was diminishing even as her breathing evened out. Her mouth quirked into a shy smile, "I couldn't tell you. But I don't think the air here is good for my brain. All of these hallucinations only serve to confuse me."

"Hallucinations?" Korra inquired.

"You don't want to know," was all that Kaji was willing to share. Her hand left her face and fell to her lap. A small flame flickered in the palm, quickly coming out in a small plume of orange and blue tendrils before she extinguished it with a clenched fist. Looking up, she was thankful that Korra had turned her attention back to the scalded area just below her clavicle. The depression caused by the loss of her powerful bending was still raw it seemed.

"Your leg was infected, so I think that we are trapped here for a little while longer," Korra was saying. Kaji sighed in relief. She did not wish to be faced with whatever awaited her back in the world of the living. And that was only after they figured out some way of evading Koh's servants and finding their way out of the infinite celestial land.

**P.S: I really enjoyed the whole idea in A:TLA concerning Zuko facing his inner dragons. I wanted to incorporate it into this story concerning Kaji. There were a few complications however, especially the fact that Azula is Kaji's 'Iroh' (as in, the person she looks up to) so she really had to be lacking in a good influence. That and I still consider her to be on the fence when it comes to being a really evil protagonist or a confused antagonist, so as to keep the story interesting. Choosing the red dragon was also hard for me. I was originally going to place Korra as the blue and Azula as the red, but I figured that it would be better to keep it to family members like in A:TLA. So, tell me what you think. I know it is still very open ended, but it was meant to be that way. As always, reviews let me know I am loved (or hated which is an emotional response that I am completely happy with too). Seriously though, they help me improve my writing and I love to here what would make the story more entertaining/enjoyable. Bye for now. :)**


	34. TSW (Part III) To See a Dragon

**A/N: I know it has been, like, two weeks, and I am regretful of that. Still, this chapter turned out to be 24 pages on my word doc so maybe the length can be a sort of saving grace. I wanted to give a little more personal insight into Kaji's past and illuminate some of her motivations. Next chapter, I promise, the main plotline will resume. For now, please enjoy the lull in compounding action scenes- not that I skimped out on all the action- and leave a review when you are done. **

**If anyone can guess where I got my blonde-haired OC from, you are the most amazing awesomest person on the face of this earth; so awesome, in fact, that you defy grammar and adjectives. (I changed her eye color so don't be confused. The name is correct though.)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and nothing owns me... so it is a mutually beneficial relationship.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"We are neither supportive nor deprecating," the red flying serpent spoke as though to an ignorant child. "We are simply opposite faces of the coin of choice. I am surrender. She is fight."

"I choose to fight," Kaji immediately spoke. "Surrender was never an option."

Her lightening no longer worked because her driving force had shifted. It was no longer pride or honor or debt that drew her forward, it was the Avatar. And it would always be her. Kaji knew it, felt it in her bones. But she could not use Korra as fuel for her inner flames when her every action went against the young Avatar and her morals. Until she chose, Kaji knew that her flames would not return to their former glory.

"Your leg was infected, so I think that we are trapped here for a little while longer," Korra was saying. Kaji sighed in relief. She did not wish to be faced with whatever awaited her back in the world of the living. And that was only after they figured out some way of evading Koh's servants and finding their way out of the infinite celestial land.

The darkness of the cave had gotten to be more than either Korra or Kaji could bear over the course of their confinement. The 'days' edged on, slowly like flies trapped in molasses if the molasses had been faded alterations of grey and deeper grey with sprinkles of light grey sand which at time filtered through the entrance when the winds were blowing at the right angle. If it were possible, Korra could have sworn that the allotted space they had was gradually shrinking with each heartbeat and intake of breath. Even with Kaji's best efforts, the Avatar had been burned thrice already. Suppressing tempers was becoming a herculean task with each swift apology, each following one losing more and more of its genuineness. The girls had taken to keeping to themselves more and more as the topics that had to be discussed continued to be put off and material for idle banter became a commodity in short supply. Kaji, more than Korra, seemed to have sunk into her shell. At first, she had partaken in Korra's futile attempts at levity, but her responses had gradually trickled down into a rarity, and then stopped all together. On her part, Korra felt an irrational burning in her heart; a mixture of anger at the obvious illusive nature the other girl had taken on and hurt stemming from her counterpart's refusal to trust her with whatever was bothering the perturbed Fire National. As good of a liar as the firebender had been- and continued to be- some things were simply visible to Korra's eyes due to her strong connection to the girl. It was like trying to diagnose some terminal disease ravaging the psychology of her lover without any basis to start with apart from the knowledge that there was a malady, an ailment, to be found.

At first, the prospect of the fast healing wound on Kaji's leg was enough to keep the Avatar's spirits up, hopeful that soon they would be leaving the dreary place and its tightness. Proximity, once so welcomed, was almost a slow poison to her, suffocating her in its thrall. She hated it. She hated not being able to do anything. She hated feeling so helpless when there was obviously something askew, if not completely ajar. Korra was a woman of action.

The breaking point could not have been distinguished, nor could it have been predicted with any accuracy except for the sense of foreboding inevitability that oozed from the atmosphere like a black miasma. There had been no change in location, climate, or dialogue, the latter due to the lack thereof. The sandstorm outside continued to ebb and flow in its own invisible cycle, not broken since the night of stars and moons, oblivious to the fraying patience of the occupants of the narrow cave. The cave itself was no less dank or stuffy or unpleasant with its projections of rock and stiff contours. The sands sweeping in were not the irritant to blame for the sudden outburst of emotional upheaval; they had always been there and the girls had long since learned to ignore the intrusion of the granules as they entered in search of a refuge from their random journey upon the whim of the breeze. No, nothing in particular was different. Since time never really seemed to be a factor within the Spirit World, even its passage- however obscure it happened to be- held no sway as it would have in the midst of the physical plain. Perfect stasis. Perhaps it was indeed the fact that everything was the same, and would seemingly continue to remain the same for all eternity, that finally broke through the chipped and ill maintained walls of courtesy that had been erected for the sanity of the cave dwellers. All Korra could feel, without reason or conspiracy, was that she had to get a word out of the firebender.

Tap. Tap. Tap, tap, tap, and tap. The fingers of Kaji's right hand danced against the stone of the floor, her sharpened nails clacking against it and echoing as if they were running along marble in some cavernous hall. Tap. Korra's temple began to throb. She knew that the firebender was feeling as much a trapped animal as she was, but the little ticks that surfaced along with the restlessness were starting to slowly drive her up a wall.

Tap. Tap. Ta-

"Would you stop?!" Korra felt the command slip through her quickly disintegrating façade without permission. Her vocal chords held a sourness from the lack of use, especially enflamed by the suddenness of her yell. The words rang a few seconds, permeating the air around them and sinking into every crag and fold. Golden eyes turned slowly to look into her sapphire ones, uncomprehending at first, then turning disinterested as the message sank in. A pale hand fell limp against the ground, making a muffled thump before silence reigned once more. With the hand, the dim gaze of molten orbs dropped as well, surrendering without a hint of care or defiance.

Korra would have none of it. Not after so many… whatever increment or measurement of the passing moments one wished to utilize in a place where it was impossible to know such things. She despised how Kaji did not even try to hide her waning disposition through an energetic or enigmatic demeanor. Smacking her ghostly, luminescent fist into the ground with force enough to dent the bedrock, she cried out, "What is it?! Tell me! What happened to you that you no longer talk to me?!"

The desperation was palpable. Kaji's eyes were having a mighty difficult time in rising from the, suddenly very interesting, dust particles settling on the floor beside her feet. She could not fathom how to begin to explain the emotional turmoil writhing inside of her, threatening to swallow her whole into the roaring red waves. _Red,_ she chuckled in a partially unhinged manner, _firebenders and their red. We must seem like such droll, predictable people._ A blue flicker in her peripheral and the Fire Lord's secretive smile broadened slightly. Perhaps every person of the nations was predictable what with the blues and the greens and the yellow sunbursts. The tangent ran away with her until she had no recollection as to how she ended up swimming in a whirlpool of dyes and colorations; all she cared about was that the current carried her away from the painful memory of her fire and her heart and the rest of the world waiting to devour her and turn her into its own personal scapegoat.

"Kaji?!" Korra's voice snapped her to attention. Her head remained where it was, hanging limply off of her extended neck, with messy bangs concealing the upturned gaze slightly. Flickers of gold glistened with reflections of the droplets of light filtering past the opening, made to appear leagues away by some optical illusion of the dessert and the stressful atmosphere.

"Korra," the smooth reply was an empty vessel, holding not even the slightest touch of feeling. The fire had gone cold.

"…" Korra wanted to say something, but all of the questions in her mind jostled for attention; so many were wont to be asked that her mind could not discern where one ended and another began. Her mouth tasted like ashes. The inside of her cheek was raw from being bitten on, a habit she had thought she had seen an end to but apparently been resurfaced in the lack of anything else to do.

"Do you want to hear a story?" it was Kaji who asked the question, strangely unsure and timid. Not waiting for a reply, the girl went on, "You've met my father, yes? He asked you to be rid of me, when the time came for us to meet in battle."

Confusion was the first thing to cross the Avatar's mind. Kaji could not have known of that… perhaps his involvement with the White Lotus had not been guarded closely enough. But, the meeting itself and what had transpired within should have remained a secret, surely. She nodded nevertheless, wondering where Kaji planned to take things.

The answer came veiled in another inquiry, "He told you things about my past, did he not?" Another nod. The Fire Lord's shoulders sagged. "He did not know me until I was well into my adolescence. By then, all he saw was the calculating soldier I had been raised to be. The strategist. I think he despised me more for the fact that I never belonged to him; that I was always my grandmother's creature, having stepped into the position that had been originally meant for him. I have not told you anything about my childhood."

There was a pause in which Kaji picked at the tiny film of dust that had crept under her elongated fingernails and Korra shuffled against the lumpy wall behind her in search of a more comfortable niche. Neither one of them was certain as to whether the unspoken boundary of the past should have been breached. It had been a wall that had held firm throughout the entirety of their previous relationship, looming in the background like some dreaded bulwark of doom, but there had always been leagues of distance separating them. Now, it seemed as though they had come to stand within its gaping shadow, the sun swallowed behind the arching stones of memory and intimacy.

"It was a mistake to keep my past from you," Kaji finally continued. "I know so much about you, and yet, you know close to nothing about me. I had wanted to share… some things… but I was always afraid that you would reject me if you knew, or that you would never trust me again. Now, it doesn't matter. I have already betrayed your trust and… whatever we are now; there is less to lose by telling you this."

"You don't have to push yourself if you don't want to," Korra knew that she would be kicking herself by saying those words. She had waited, Spirits knew how long, to hear the unfolding events that had ultimately led up to her meeting with Kaji; to be able to filter through the enigmatic mixture of circumstance and stratagem corrupting their attempts at staying together. But she said them, because she knew that Kaji could only further distance herself from the Avatar if she felt that she was being forced to reveal such sensitive topics out of some sense of guilt or obligation; that alone, was the only sacrifice Korra was not willing to make. "Tell me only if that is what you want."

Kaji sunk into herself, wrestling with the flight reflex at the presented opening. Korra's generosity was subtly costing her more than if she had forced the confession from her. Still, that was not the type of person Korra was. Kaji growled at her lack of discipline; she had kept the secrets for far too long. If she expected Korra to understand that she could not simply throw everything away, even if it was for the deep love that she felt towards the girl, then she would have to open up the figurative time capsule and let the younger girl in. Vulnerability had never been an emotion well liked by the family of Agni's blood, though it did have a knack for haunting them like their own personal poltergeist.

"I want to say it," she deadpanned. The easiest way to go about doing this was for Kaji to remain completely objective, retelling the events as though they had happened to a complete stranger. In a way, the cool, concentrated girl who had once seen the age of the Fire Empire as a swath of golden light falling upon the lesser peoples of the world was completely alien to the confused, stranded woman sitting at the bottom of some hole in the Spirit World. In a way, it made it easier to retell the passage of her young life while paradoxically making it more painful to remember how blissfully blind she had been back then.

"I suppose I should start with the day that I turned five, at the height of the summer months; the summer solstice had only just gone a week or so before. It was the first day that I was able to conjure fire-"

_The Fire Nation summer was blistering, temperatures rising to all-time highs as the world capital of industry spewed dense clouds of carbon dioxide that trapped the greenhouse gases in an invisible dome over the island nation. The sun's rays fell upon the ground with merciless abandon and even the firebenders ran to find shelter within the acclimatized buildings blowing cooling ventilated air around the rooms of quaint little family homes._

_There were, of course, a few courageous or insane souls who braved the heat. Most had found patches of shade to recline under; others took comfort in the deeper sections of ponds and pools to escape. The only two people foolish enough to be standing out in the open without any form of protection were a young girl and a woman in her elder years. Both held deep, strong horse stances. The older woman was breathing in and out, releasing little jets of indigo fire from her nose and mouth to dissipate the excess kinetic energy within her body. The young one, half a decade old, was sweating profusely and having a difficult time concentrating when her matted hair kept sticking to her skin and eliciting a terrible urge to scratch at the irritated epidermis. The tiny leg muscles were taut, but fatigue was starting to become evident with each tremor that ran up the calves to the thighs. Carefully, the little girl peeked through one large, golden eye to watch in envy as the master bender kept her body in homeostasis through the ribbons of sapphire flames exiting her mouth and nose in each exhale. A gruff harrumph startled the child, immediately snapping her eye closed and spreading a blush over her cheeks at being caught._

_"Concentrate," the teacher murmured. "You should be mastering the art of firebending soon if you are going to be any good at it, so make sure you learn the basics now."_

_"Yes Master Azula," young Kaji replied with military diligence. _

_The trembling in her legs only increased however, no matter how strongly she willed against it. The shaking spread higher until the child's small frame was so unstable that, had there been a whisper of wind to disturb the torrid atmosphere, she probably would have been sent tumbling to the gravel beneath them. A small cry escaped Kaji's parched lips as her muscles finally gave in under the intense pressure of the sun's rays, her head swimming as gravity seemed to stop working and she felt her feet leave the floor. The vertigo set in to such a degree as to make her fear that she was falling, not toward the earth's welcoming arms, but the distant stratus of stars nestled among the heavens. The impact of the ground hitting her square in the forehead… or perhaps it was the other way around… was enough to jolt her back to semi-consciousness. The small girl coughed, ejecting the dusty remnants of the mucous lining her dry, cracked mouth with weak spasms of her diaphragm._

_"Get up," Azula's rigid voice commanded. "We are not finished and you are only allowed reprieve when it is over."_

_Kaji shifted her body slightly so as to allow her arms to come underneath her aching sternum. Her heart was lethargic, slowed by the heat permeating throughout her surroundings, and only made for a more difficult time in recovering her stance. Her hands shook from the effort of lifting her torso even a centimeter from the sandy arena where they had come to practice. Irritation turned quickly into a violent tide of burning crimson rage; the young girl never accepted loss, she had never been taught to learn from her failures because she was not permitted to have any. The anger bubbled underneath her skin, scalding the epidermal layer to the point that the pale flesh visibly became a shade redder. Boiling hot blood fled her nasal passages as the fragile capillaries broke from dilating too much in the vain attempts at keeping a stable body temperature._

_"Get up, Kaji!"_

_Urgency coiled itself around the flashes of wrath, perforating the thinning membrane that Kaji had never acknowledged before; it felt as though some part of herself that had been locked away had finally surfaced from its submerged state. The chains snapped and she could almost see the light illuminate her heart and mind, ethereal chi flowing freely for the first time through her small lymphatic system, igniting everything in its path. _

_"Magnificent," the compliment was nearly lost upon her. Kaji was still blind to the outside world, enraptured by the inner aurora borealis playing along the corners of her mind in waves of cobalt beauty. The word slithered into her cochlea and then up her auditory nerve until it caught the overactive dendrites leading to her nervous system. Large golden eyes snapped open to an image similar to the one in her head, only this was real. The blue dancing fire of the midnight sky was blowing small cylindrical patterns around her tiny, outstretched arms and licking at her body. For most, to have been bathed in such a display of superheated molecules would have been alarming, but for the first time, Kaji felt completely at peace. _

"My grandmother told me that no one had been able to hold mastery over the blue fire before the weaker, orange form… up until me," Kaji, the nineteen-year-old, smiled at the memory of the proud smile gracing her benefactor's face. It had been the proudest moment of her life up to that point.

"She had you stand in the middle of an open courtyard when it was over one hundred degrees outside?" Korra glared in incredulity at the happiness with which the Fire Lord recalled the event. She shook her head, noting that firebenders were by far the most idiotically insane people she had ever met. "Did the heat fry your common sense?"

Instead of getting upset, as Korra thought she would at the poorly hidden insult, Kaji simply laughed. It was a carefree sound, like bells or chimes, and Korra soon cared less about the stupidity and stubbornness of the Fire National and more about wanting to hear the sound for the rest of her life. Finding the impulse to join in difficult to go against, the Avatar broke into her own fit of giggles while Kaji tried to justify the brash infraction against logic, "Fire requires fuel to be ignited. You know this. Azula knew me. I was always eager to please her and every misdemeanor or mistake I made, I took to heart. Excellence had always been my motivator, so she set me up with an impossible task; in that manner, I was able to overcome the barrier holding my firebending back."

"She couldn't have just waited until you were mature enough for it to manifest itself?" Korra remembered the months of grueling boredom she had spent in preparation for her entry into the art of fire wielding. To expect a child of no more than five to master one of the most unpredictable elements, even if said child was talented beyond measure, was a little disconcerting.

"She was her father's daughter," the words were said in a saddened, lamenting mumble. Korra turned her head to look out of the small window into the outside environment, noting its uniformity. Ozai, Azula, now Kaji; it seemed as though the line of Sozin was cursed to forever suffer the expectations- and, through them, the sins- of the previous generation.

"And you are Azula's?" it was tentative, for Korra feared the answer more than she would have liked to admit.

Kaji's formless reply drifted into Korra's exposed ear, though her eyes stayed centered at the focal point of the beige wall made of whirling sand, "I used to want nothing more than to have her call me hers with pride in her voice. I once would have done anything, burned the entire world to the ground with everyone in it had she so much as hinted that it was her desire; now, now I don't know anymore."

Another lengthy silence enveloped them. Korra did not wish to feel the hopeful butterflies flutter in her stomach, not sure whether they were premature and should have been kept in their cocoons until she was more certain of the firebender's intentions. Kaji still could not find the conviction to form one answer or the other and stick to it. She owed her life to her grandmother, but she also did not want to waste that life by fighting against her overwhelming craving for Korra's love. She decided to withhold judgment for the moment and continued on.

"Let's see. If I remember correctly, the next thing that happened was the Academy. I had spent the larger part of my youth being privately instructed in the subjects my grandmother deemed necessary for my upbringing so I did not actually enter the Fire Nation Academy for Girls until I was twelve. My father had returned a few years prior to that."

_A platonic look of sheer exasperation was the permanent fixture on the near-teenager's face. The pack she had slung haphazardly over her right shoulder sagged with the writing materials and scrolls that were needed for her classes throughout the day. The opening ceremony was about to begin, welcoming all new and returning students to the commencing school year. As a member of the Royal Family, the aggravated girl had been given one of the outlying balconies that hovered over the heads of the normal student body. Because of the lack of usage of the projecting compartment, the seats had acquired a thick film of dust. Kaji crinkled her nose, musing as to whether the impudent staff members had deemed her less worthy than her cousin, Iroh, when it came to cleaning. Her grandmother may not have been Fire Lord, but that did not give any excuse for incompetence._

_A staff member stood nervously behind her, his long hands clasped in front of his thin waist. He did not notice it, but every now and then he would rock onto his heels and then back down again in a nervous fidget. His brow was slightly beaded, having heard the horror stories of the countless number of tutors who had been chased out of the complex of chambers held by the most famous general in Zuko's army, all by this frightful girl sitting with her back turned to him. The poor man had been one of the few members of the Academy who had been entrusted with the identity of the forgotten Royal. For the majority of the students and faculty, Kaji was to be nothing more than a wealthy merchant's daughter, or some big shot politician's niece. Above all, discretion was to be kept, on penalty of incarceration… or so he had been told by his boss._

_"D-do, you requ-require anything else, My Lady?" he stuttered, his tongue tripping over the words as his feet tripped over themselves and the long, flowing robes of burgundy that marked him as a member of the lower school administration._

_"Have I been demoted in some way recently without my knowledge?" the cool reply startled the man. His mind tried to work through the question, anticipating some sort of trap or rhetorical intention. None came so he chose to go with the safest choice: ask for a clarification._

_"I-I am not quite sure what you mean-"_

_"Has my rank in the hierarchy of this nation been lowered since my arrival on this Agni-forsaken island this morning? Honestly, I thought they had standards in choosing employees," the girl lazily rolled her head to rest it against her left shoulder, her eyes coming to slowly give him a look that clearly stated 'you are not worth the dirt on the bottom of my shoe.'_

_"N-not that I am aware of, My Lady," he gulped._

_"Ah, you see?!" the suddenness of the exclamation caught him off guard, causing the poor administration's officer to back away with his hands outstretched in a pose of surrender. Kaji inwardly glowed with the prospect of bringing him to the verge of tears, "There it is. 'My Lady.' If I have not been stripped of all of my family's entitlements and honors, you should refer to me as nothing less than My Princess, though I accept Your Highness or Your Grace as welcome strokes to my ego."_

_Realization hit the man. Though the Princess Azula had been stripped of her titles for a time, she had been redeemed after a few years of loyal service to her brother. In effect, that made the girl sitting, staring at him in expectation, Princess as well. His body, frozen apart from a lip that appeared to be having a seizure, the man could do nothing but run profuse apologies through his head. A moan drew itself from his mouth, making the girl snicker in a manner that reminded him of a dragon playing with its prey, prolonging the inevitable demise of the sacrificial animal. _

_"And to answer your previous question, I suppose I do not require anything further from you. Honestly, if I cannot even expect to be greeted properly, and placed in suitable accommodations," her remark emphasized by a slim finger run across the top of a velvet chair cushion and coming up with a thin film of dust, "then I do not expect to be given much further consideration anyway."_

_Kaji arched her eyebrows when the man made no move to leave. _Oh dear, _she thought to herself_, I do believe I placed him in some sort of catatonic state. Best wake him before I get pulled out of this place and sent back to the palace.

_A hard clap brought the administrator back from his stupor. His mouth gaped open in a convincing show of a man who had been half-drowned and finally allowed to break the surface of the water. Grey eyes snapped to look at an amused, Cheshire grin playing on the corners of the Princess Kaji's lips. "You are dismissed," she said, making shooing motions with her hands. "I know where my classes and my rooms are so don't bother coming back to give me the tour."_

_"Y-yes, Princess," he made sure not to further humiliate himself as he turned and fled._

_Watching him, Kaji couldn't help but laugh aloud. She had always had so much fun using her grandmother's history and her own position to torture others and, with so many victims running about the place, she knew that she was going to have a great amount of fun before she would have to return to the dismal halls of her home. There, she was the shadow of Azula, always following her and acting the part of pupil, but here, here she could rule as she had been taught to do._

"You are horrible," Korra managed through her chuckles. "Poor people. How the hell did they survive you?"

"Well, I only stayed for about two years before I went off on my own," Kaji reasoned. "But other than that, I suppose I had a few experiences there that ingratiated me with the higher upsand got me out of anything I was careless enough to get in trouble for."

"Tell me more," Korra smiled. She had never really had the 'school' experience. All of her lessons, she had learned personally. She had had training partners, but none had been her age and most had never conversed with her. To be able to hear about Kaji's escapades would be a welcome insight into something she had been denied.

"Alright," Kaji relented. She too didn't mind going off on a bit of a tangent before she began retelling the more serious aspects of her life. Thinking of what she wanted to follow with, she settled on an experience that marked her for the rest of her life.

_The first week of the year had gone on uneventfully. Kaji had kept to herself mostly and the rest of the student body had busied itself with reunions and rekindling of friendships. No one had noticed the quiet, new girl in the back of the room who had the darkest ebony hair and the brightest golden eyes just yet. She had been afforded a pseudonym familial name, to keep the obvious nature of her position in the nation's hierarchy secret. Still, many times, the fact that she was different from the rest of her classmates showed from behind the façade. _

_The afternoon after classes was warm, even though autumn was fast approaching. Such a sunshiny, cloudless day had all of the girls out on the beachfront. Teachers had taken pity on the excitable youths, affording them the day without too many assignments- and those allotted were complete-able in roughly ten minutes- so minds had left the drudgery of the classroom, and flown to the picturesque seashore. _

_Kaji had decided to leave her less than expansive chambers as well, figuring that her pale skin could use some vitamin D. She also couldn't stand staying in the cramped quarters of the small shack she had been given as a residence. There was a bathroom next to the bedroom, furnished by two beds laid parallel to each other, heads facing the one window looking out onto the bay. A small living room was accessible through a door opposite to the window, flanked by a large mahogany dresser on one side and a miniature closet on the other. The living room itself was also infuriatingly tiny, with two coaches available for reading strewn across the middle of the area, and a table with three chairs nestled into a corner by yet another small window, most probably for doing homework. Apart from that, and a small icebox for drinks, the chambers ended with a plain door leading into the hallway. She had been told that the size was what was afforded to the moderately wealthy, but it was small enough not to draw any unwanted attention. And, had that been all, Kaji may haps would have been able to adjust. The final touch that she could not stand, for the life of her, was the fact that she would have to share it._

_"Royal treatment in a secretive manner," the Princess grumbled to herself as she walked down the hill that led to the beach. She had a vain hope that she might, somehow, find a relatively vacated spot on the sand. "Damn liars."_

_"Talking to yourself is never a good sign you know," Kaji stopped dead in her tracks, hand clenching around the loose strap of the pack that had her change of clothes. Turning, her eyes scanned the area in search of whoever had addressed her. She didn't have to look far, gaze zeroing in on a girl not even a yard away from her. She was tall, taller than even Kaji who was rapidly overtaking some of the older girls in height. Long, exotic hair spilled over her bare shoulders in waves of gold and silver depending on the manner with which it caught the light. Her eyes were melted chocolate, sparkling with the reflection of the bright daylight and the oozing happiness barely contained in her white-toothed smile. The bathing suit she had on was a scandalous pattern of blue flowers on a white background; colors that were quite unseemly for a Fire National. Her skin was also of a darker hue than the others, but whether that was because of a good tan or mixed heritage, Kaji could not tell._

_Smiling, Kaji decided that anyone willing to so explicitly defy the norm was worth a second glance. Thinking of a smartass retort, she didn't even think before blurting out, "Well, insanity runs in the family I guess."_

_The girl looked down at the Princess quizzically, waiting for some sort of insight into what had obviously been an inside joke. Mentally slapping herself, Kaji quickly searched for something to say that would remedy her slip of the tongue without giving away her identity. For some peculiar reason, where she had always been a moderate if not better liar, her brain had completely frozen over in the presence of the eccentric stranger._

_"Well, I guess I'm not getting a straight answer for that one," the girl brushed over the awkward silence that had enveloped them. Switching the subject quite suddenly, she inquired, "Were you heading to the water?"_

_"T-the-" _water? What the hell was that again?_ 'Flustered' could not have begun to describe the current state of the Royal. The other girl blinked, trying to understand the stupefied state of her newly acquainted friend. Then, quite unexpectedly, Kaji's mind cleared enough to assess the question and develop a sufficient answer. "Yes, I was… as you said."_

_Giggling at the strangeness of her newly found companion, the blonde took a hold of Kaji's arm and wheeled around to face the distant surf. "My name is Jenny Realight. It's a pleasure to meet you…"_

_The pause was clearly intended for Kaji to insert her name, but all she could think of was how perfect the name seemed to fit such a… different… looking person. A unique name for a unique girl. Unique, and impulsive Kaji mused as the girl, Jenny, snapped two fingers in front of her face and kept looking at her in a n expectant manner. _

_"Kaji," the name came unbidden. She didn't try to remember the surname that had been appointed to her, knowing it would be an impossible task when her brain was still stalling and could not get past how warm the girl's arm felt against her skin. _

_"Well, Kaji, why don't we head over together then? The beach is always more fun when you have a friend around."_

_Without complaint, the Princess let herself get dragged down to the shoreline, all of the time thinking, _friend, huh,_ and wondering at the warm feeling the word brought to her stomach._

"She was my roommate too," Kaji smiled at the memory. It was stupid how that one little moment, one little show of unconditional kindness, still had a way of making her feel happy.

"Where was she from?" Korra had never heard of such a foreign name, or a foreign description, for someone. Blonde hair that was not dyed was very rare among all of the four continents, but especially so in the western island nation.

"You know, I never asked," Kaji sighed, leaning her head on her shoulder and working at a kink in her neck. "She was actually the first person I fell for."

Korra smirked at the blush that colored the Fire Lord's cheeks. Rarely did Kaji's face redden from embarrassment, but when it did, it was surely a sign of a good story. And, to make things better, Korra's green monster had yet to rear its ugly head. _Thank you magical Guru man. _

"Yeah?" she prodded playfully. The Avatar would have loved to give the added effect of poking the firebender's side, but thought better when a strong heat wave passed over her. Apparently the darkening hue in Kaji's stained cheeks was also an indication of an increase in the exuding fire under her skin.

"I had been in the Academy for one year and was starting my second. I was fourteen at the time, and, unknown to me, it would be my last year at the Fire Nation Academy for Girls."

_The winter on the island was like a particularly wet autumn in any other corner of the globe. The clouds drifted over the landscape in an oppressive manner, threatening to catch any suckers unlucky enough to find themselves outside in a downpour. The wind chilled the landscape, evaporating the droplets of water clinging to the grass and treetops, absorbing heat and entrapping it in the freed gas molecules. For a particular firebender, the inside was no better off. Kaji slumped under her covers, miserably shivering in the cold air of the bedroom. Had she had it her way, the heater would be on blast to keep her overheated body from giving off the meager warmth she had been able to accumulate under the thick blanket, but she had drawn the short straw- or rather, lost the Pai Sho game for the first time in her life not counting the games against her grandmother- and had been disavowed of her temperature control privileges. And Jenny was the type of person to greatly enjoy her cold weather. Kaji had discovered early on in their roommate-ship that the girl was a nonbender and had come to get accepted in the Academy on a scholarship for foreign exchange students. Whenever the firebender had tried to discern where the idiot was from, she had been promptly shut down with either a fistful of fire flakes shoved down her throat or a door slammed in her face, followed by a cheerful remark of 'if I tell you, the mystery will be dead.' Infuriating. But, despite the detached mannerism with which the Princess treated all of the others in her class and school altogether, Kaji found herself growing inexplicably close to the blonde-haired beauty._

_A door slammed open, revealing the hyperactive heathen upon whom Kaji blamed her current predicament. To her guffaw, her roommate had deemed it appropriate to wear nothing but a pair of really short shorts and a tank top, all while not displaying a single sign of cold. Stretching, the nonbender peered into the dim room. The day was barely turning from afternoon to evening but the overcast made the lightless expanse dark as midnight. Brown eyes danced in glee as they caught signs of movement coming from the bed on the right, occupied by the huddled Princess. Another peculiarity Kaji had come to find, get accustomed to, and eventually enjoy, was Jenny's insistence on constant bodily contact as a display of affection._

_"What the fu-" Kaji's curse was muffled by a mouthful of cotton and silk as the body of the other girl collided with her through the covers. For a second, she could not breathe, her mind panicking as fuzzy balls of orange and red appeared at the corners of her vision. Soon enough though, her head was uncovered with a swift pull at the offending blanket, and a good portion of her long hair. After briefly massaging her scalp to lessen the stinging, the firebender turned to give her assailant-rescuer a dirty look. _

_"What were you doing in the dark?" Jenny smiled, oblivious to the venomous golden eyes throwing imaginary spears in her direction._

_"Hibernating," Kaji muttered darkly. Her ears were starting to grow cool, so she grabbed for the edge of her sheets and made a sort of hood out of them. There was a small hole for her mouth and nose, but other than that, not an inch of skin was showing._

_"I didn't know dragons hibernated," her friend prodded the tip of her nose. Kaji shook her head to dispel the offending digit. She gave up when it became obvious that her efforts were wasted as it descended on the same spot each time her head stayed its motion. _

_"They don't," Kaji replied in her pedantic manner. "But I am not a dragon."_

_"Sure you are," Jenny insisted, loving the way her companion grew embarrassed at the nickname. "You breathe fire, you have a horrible temper, and you totally crinkle your nose in a snarl whenever you don't like something." Kaji grunted, not deeming the backhanded… endearments, worth the trouble. "And you have a really warm belly."_

_There was no time to react, it happened so fast. One moment, Kaji was slowly succumbing to the gloom of gradually freezing to death with only an annoying chatterbox as her final human contact, then the next she was lying on her back with the sheets completely thrown off of her and Jenny's head nestled right up against her bared abdomen. The squeak that escaped her was far from ladylike, though it made the girl lying on top of her giggle. The vibrations against her skin sent a strange new sensation shooting through her frame. Her back arched, her mind unsure as to whether the movement was an attempt to get the blonde off of her or to get closer to her. Strong hands pushed Kaji back onto the malleable mattress. Butterflies dive-bombed around her stomach, cutting at her with ticklish wings. A gasp escaped her when something warm and wet slid down into her bellybutton before coming up to trail over her taught stomach. Reflexively, she threw her hands behind her and pushed herself into a sitting position, effectively knocking Jenny off of her in the process. The Princess had no idea what to think when her eyes caught the small glint of moisture on her bare skin._

_"What the hell are you doing?" Kaji swept up the saliva that had been placed upon her without her permission. Splaying her fingers, she glared at the sloppiness of her friend, wondering what the girl was playing at._

_"You didn't like it?" the Fire Princess was taken aback by the sheer despair with which Jenny whispered it, sadness brimming over the edge of her watering eyes. _

_Quick to react to the girl's unanticipated emotional display, Kaji truthfully backpedalled with a hesitant, "N-no, it wasn't… thoroughly… unpleasant." Jenny's face perked up almost instantaneously, her arms quickly outstretching to engulf the firebender in a hug. Kaji's hands shot up to keep her at arm's length, softly pushing against the soft skin of the blonde's shoulders. "Why did you do it?"_

_Jenny chuckled into her hand, the other falling to the bed when it became apparent that the oblivious golden-eyed girl was not going to let her anywhere near her until she gave an explanation. Sighing, she chose to play with Kaji a little more, knowing that the firebender was easily miffed when it came to things she did not understand, "Because I like you."_

_Not one to disappoint, Kaji's face quickly morphed from determined curiosity to utter astonishment. Her mind reeled, searching for any precedent to Jenny's actions within the social etiquette manuscripts she had studiously examined as a child. Customarily, she had never read of humans licking each other as signs of affection. Her bewilderment was evident in her tone, "People do that as a display of affinity?"_

_Jenny snickered, glad that Kaji had not rejected her advances because she didn't want them; the firebender was clearly out of her league when it came to reading situations such as this. Furthering the confusion, the blonde nodded her head vigorously," Yup."_

_"Is this… a custom… in your previous home?" Kaji hated being caught unawares. The girl had always been eccentric, but the Princess had not known her to be so… so… abnormal. Cultural gaps were not helpful in such situations, Kaji decided._

_"You could say that," Jenny slid up to sit beside the calculating Royal, barely keeping her straight face when all she really wanted to do was to fall on top of the helpless Fire National. "But I'm pretty sure the Fire Nation does the same thing. And the Earth Kingdom. And the Tribes. I guess, even the Airbenders."_

_Perplexed, Kaji turned away from her companion, barely noticing the sly hand that wound itself around her shoulders and pressed her against Jenny's well-developed chest. The puzzle of how such a thing which had been emitted from her instruction could be so pivotal as to be performed by all peoples of all nations was close to incredible. Azula had ensured that Kaji was a brilliant politician, knowledgeable in all of the traditions and mannerisms of the differing people of the world. Could it have been possible that she had missed one? Perhaps she had not deemed Kaji old enough to understand such a complex practice? It seemed rather intimate in its fashion, something done in private and only between confidants of great esteem._

_"If you keep creasing your forehead like that, you're going to get wrinkles," Jenny smiled._

_"I don't care," Kaji murmured, inspecting a nail while still mulling over the obvious gap in her tuition on worldly affairs._

_"Well you should, your face is one of your defining features. You should take care of it," the nonbender reached over and swept a strand of hair out of Kaji's eyes. Deciding that the girl would give herself an aneurism if she concentrated any harder, Jenny decided to take pity and end Kaji's misery. "And, when I said that I liked you, I meant it like this."_

_Kaji's eyes widened as a pair of satin soft lips pressed against hers. It was a chaste kiss, but it set her on fire in a way that she had never experienced before. It felt… nice, better than nice. Her brain screamed for her to stop, telling her that there was something innately wrong with what she was doing. The act was supposed to be done between a man and a woman… or, at least, that was what she had heard whenever the girls in her class spoke of their boyfriends and such. But, she had never felt the urge to become some goopy-eyed idiot fawning over the pompous son of some famous noble or notable business tycoon. Having Jenny's soft, supple body pressed against her battle hardened frame was heaven and she never wanted it to stop. Hands came to circle around her, grasping at her shirt's loose collar and tugging at her hair. Her own hands timidly reached up to press into her friend's protruding shoulder blades. _

_They broke apart, huffing for air and crimson faced. Matching stupid grins spread from ear to ear as they met each other's eyes. The night was spent with a certain firebender snuggling close to her newly found compatriot- occasionally with a few instances of the firebender being pushed off of the bed in a flurry of blankets when said compatriot became too hot._

"We became even closer after that, though I insisted that we keep what we were doing a secret. I think she was a little upset with me about that, but she never said anything. I made a convincing argument about my father freaking out and taking me out of the school, which wasn't that far off I suppose," Kaji chuckled. Her face grew a shade darker after a moment of thinking. "It was too hard to hide it. We became sloppy in the heat of the moment, and rumors began to spread. I was top in my firebending class, despite having to lower my fire intensity to match the red flames of the other students, so I didn't get the brunt of the attacks. And Jenny was so good at covering up the bruises that I didn't find out about what they were doing to her until it was nearly the end of the semester."

_Kaji had forgotten her textbook on the histories of the Fire Nation and its relations with the outside world in the classroom again. She cursed her faulty memory as she strode briskly down the hallway, hoping that she could slip in and out before the teacher came back from her meeting. She had already been admonished twice before over the same topic and had no intention of dusting the shelves of the decrepit bookcases lining the back of the room again. Thankfully, she was able to get there just as the stringent woman rounded the corner to the council room. The sliding door was easily pried open with only a miniscule scratch against the paper windows to mark her entry. Finding the book tucked neatly under the desk where she sat throughout the day, Kaji smiled at her good fortune. _

_With book in hand, the Fire Princess took off at a sprint to clear the scene. Her feet carried her swiftly down a series of corridors before she slowed to a halt. The hallways were empty of any witnesses, so she would be able to say that she had been at the other side of the school the entire time, were anyone to actually inquire. _

_She was passing the biology section when she heard the scream. It was quiet, almost as if its owner had tried to stifle it. Kaji had never really been one to care about the victims of bullying, believing that those too weak to defend themselves deserved what they got, but her natural curiosity had her turn down the hall and sneak closer to the sound. Soon the cries of pain were accompanied with hard impacts of skin on skin. Obviously, the violence had escalated from verbal to physical. Tensing her muscles, the firebender crouched down and slightly craned her neck forward to peek around the bend leading to the rectangular depression that led to the bathrooms and drinking fountains. Her eyes widened at the spectacle unraveling before her._

_Three girls had congregated around a cringing body. The one to the right was shortest; the victim was getting mercilessly kicked against the hard plaster wall as a show of bravado. The girl to the left crouched down and held onto the person's neck causing her sobs to come out in choking gulps. The middle girl, the leader of the bunch, was standing a ways away from the scene, observing it as a vulture would a banquet of lions. _

_"What a freak," the short girl said, enunciating every word with another hard kick to the girl's already battered form. "Just look at that hair and that skin."_

_"Yeah," the one on the left joined in. "Fucking foreigners, defacing the prestige of our academy. If you're going to act like some uncivilized beast, go do it in the hole where you crawled out from."_

_The leader brandished a small flame on the tips of her fingers, strengthened by a smaller opening in her chi so that it resembled a blowtorch. Her eyes sparkled, steel pits of grey, as she smiled and added to the barrage of insults, "We don't want unnatural scum like you around. You should leave, before you really get hurt," another kick and another gurgled moan, "and, to make sure you and that sick little girlfriend of yours get the message, I'm going to permanently brand it on you."_

_Fear gripped the chocolate eyes of the trapped girl as the flames of the firebender got closer to her body. Getting into position over the exposed area of the girl's skin, between her uniform's skirt and the shirt that had ridden up in the struggle, the leader prepared to make her intended mark. Her fingers flicked forward, and the flames burst hotly for a second, before being extinguished by an unexpected hand grabbing a hold of them from behind. Turning in anger, she beheld a familiar face glaring down at her. Kaji stood, her face ominously half-hidden in the shadow of her falling bangs. Her mouth was stretched in to a thin line, making her eyes seem larger than they were. _

_"Why don't I leave you with a message instead," the unstable tremor in Kaji's voice only added to her blackening aura. Her hand grew tighter around the two fingers until the foolish belligerent was tearfully begging her to stop. She didn't until there was an audible crack and pop, a sickening sagging of the top segments of the two fingers indicating that the bones had been completely fractured. "Do anything to hurt her again and I will… kill… you."_

_Kaji let go and the girl scampered onto her feet in an attempt to flee, only to be grabbed by the hem of her skirt and shoved back down onto the floor. The Fire Princess looked down at the sniveling waste of existence before digging her heel into the girl's face. The nose broke instantly. "Did I say you could leave?"_

_"P-please," one of the others sniffled. It was the shorty. Her breathe caught in her throat when the eyes filled with pure hatred turned to her. "W-we d-didn't mean any h-harm."_

_The laugh that came from Kaji's throat was completely maniacal. Her hand swept over to where Jenny was lying, regaining some of her breath as the air returned to her beaten lungs, "what exactly do you call that?"_

_The short girl looked down at the trembling blonde, then back up at the monster blocking the only exit. What had been a strategic place to corner a victim was now a heinous trap. She fell to her knees, head falling to touch the floor, groveling. "P-please. Don't hurt us. P-please."_

_"Oh, it's too late for that," Kaji growled, teeth bared in a Draconic expression. "You see, if you meant no harm to her and that is what you did, then what am I supposed to do to you, when I do intend to bring harm to you?"_

_The leader groaned from underneath Kaji's bloodstained boot, her mouth gasping for air around the heavy sole. Kaji sunk the heel in a centimeter further before pulling away and picking up the limp form of the girl. She was an inch or two shorter so her toes were the only things scraping the tiled floor as she was lifted. In a deft motion Kaji threw her into the wall. Blood sprayed out of her mouth and covered the Royal's clothing. Grimacing, as though aghast that such an insignificant worm should dare ruin her attire, the Princess gave the barely conscious student another well place kick just above the chest, fracturing the solar plexus. The girl who had been choking Jenny saw the opening to the escape route and took off running. Her brief gamble for freedom was brought to a quick end as brilliant blue flames erupted as a sort of fence between the two walls of the corridor, cutting off all means of evasion. The space was so small and the flames burned so hotly that everyone was sweating in seconds. The stench of fear was barely discernible over the smell of combusting air. Turning back to the other two victims of her wrath, Kaji pulled them both up and off of the blonde by the scruffs of their necks before thrusting them both headlong into the wall. She would have done more, already formulating the next bone-breaking strike to be delivered, when her eyes finally caught full sight of her girlfriend. They had left her face, mostly, except for a scratch running along her forehead that dripped an obscene amount of blood for such a shallow wound. Her chest was moving, but laboriously, and the telltale signs of bruising were forming along the skin of Jenny's exposed neck and collarbone. Her eyes were open, glazed, but still comprehensive. She instinctively flinched when Kaji made to move closer to her._

_It was the terror filling the deep brown eyes that snapped the firebender from her explosive path of destruction. Kneeling quickly, the Princess stooped her back so that her arms could slide under the frail girl's body; she lifted her bridal style, as gently as possible though even the slightest movement elicited a mewl of pain. _

_"Count yourselves fortunate," Kaji growled down at the cowering wretches at her feet. Her speech was lost upon the comatose smear of blood that was the head girl, but she trusted that the lackeys would be quick to relay the message. "If I see any of you so much as look at her in a manner that displeases me, I will ensure that your bodies are never found and your entire living families are left to poverty. Am I understood?"_

_Collective nods._

_Without a word, the Princess turned, careful to not disturb her precious bundle, and continued down the hall to where the nurse's office was._

"The nurse was rarely ever there, so I was the one who patched up the worst of it. I was still much of a novice so by the time I was satisfied with my handiwork, Jenny was nothing more than a mummy swaddled in medical gauze," Kaji chuckled before growing serious. "That was the incident that 'outed' me to my father. I would say that it was the first time Azula knew of it, but I'm sure that she had been aware for longer than even I had been."

Korra remembered vaguely Kirei's outburst over Kaji's near expulsion. Her thoughts must have portrayed her previous knowledge for her companion quizzically responded, "You knew of this incident?"

"I didn't know the details. Just the consequences," Korra replied. Her voice shook, and she was unsure of how to bring up the topic, but the chronology with which the story went compelled her to breach it, "I was also told that your grandmother… passed away, shortly after that."

Kaji indeed felt the memory as one would feel a ton of stone upon one's back. She hated to recollect how quickly she had lost everything she held dear to her. Still, solemnly and reluctantly, she retold it, "Yes. The next few weeks had me under much stress over the little situation with those girls. The head girl's parents called for me to be kicked out of the school, and it seemed for a while that it might come to pass.

"Then, suddenly, all charges dropped and the case was closed. I was free to continue my education, but there was also a consequence to my actions that even I could not have anticipated at the time… Jenny was told that she had to leave the Academy. Deep down I knew it was not my grandmother's fault; she cared not for the girl as she cared for me and must have seen her as an acceptable sacrifice, but at the moment, in my rage-"

Tears slid down the flushed, pale cheeks of the Fire Lord. Her vision blurred and her eyes stared, unseeing into the void of the past which was still so crisp that she remembered the scent of summer clinging to the trees and blades of grass.

_"What have you done!?" Kaji exclaimed._

_"My dear, I am a skilled reader of expressions," her grandmother, the Princess Azula, cordially sipped at her cooling beverage, "but you are going to have to be more specific."_

_"Why was Jenny forced to leave after Spring Break? She was told that her scholarship had been withdrawn. Why?" Furiousness exuded from the younger girl's very pores._

_"Kaji, you are a smart girl," the way it was said was not unkind, but it was also strict thus minimizing the intended effect of caring, "but what you did was immensely foolish. The girl you nearly killed was a daughter of one of the higher bureaucrats who run this nation. He was out for blood, your blood. I did what I had to in order to ensure that the brunt of the repercussions did not fall on your head. And the girl was clouding your vision, plainly. It was killing two birds with one stone."_

_"Clouding? You sent her away, ruining her life, because she was 'clouding' me?"_

_"It was for your own good. You needed a scapegoat."_

_Kaji reeled. She could not feel the earth under her any longer. Never once had she questioned a decision made by her idol, the Fire Princess Azula, but her mind was confused and her heart cried for blood; whose, it did not matter at the time. The words came weakly, trembling, through clenched teeth with an aura that would wilt a lesser soul, "Not her."_

_"She was convenient."_

_"She was the victim!"_

_"An unfortunate detail, truly."_

_"How can you be so cold?" Kaji knew she was crying. For the first time in her life, she did not care that her grandmother could see the tears streaming down her face. She was pure anguish._

_Azula stood, walking resolutely toward her wayward disciple. She stared hard, directly into the captivated golden orbs, pure mirrors of her own if only lacking in the worldly age that had darkened the depths of the older woman's with knowledge. Once, it had been so simple to elicit a look from the child that spoke of endless loyalty and reverence. Once… during a time before love, and questions, and remorse, and heartbreak. Azula could not bring herself to look upon the child as she had once gazed upon the traitors to her and her father; she could only see herself, standing alone, defiant, but so very bare and exposed in the wake of having the illusion of divinity fade from the one person who had been a rock when everything else was called into question. So, instead of the punishment that would have met such an insubordinate remark, Azula flittingly checked to ensure privacy then wrapped her arms around the quivering girl she had raised to be an unwavering flame. _

_"My dear, I know that you are hurting," she soothed. Kaji did not fight the protective cocooning effect of Azula's warmth. More so, she was shocked into stillness by the act as she had not been so openly loved since she had been a small child, "but you must know that love is a powerful, yet temporary emotion. You will find and lose it many times over before your life is at its end. That, at least, is certain."_

_"Why?" Kaji knew the answer; there were no other words left to say, so she filled the void with that sole mantra anyway. _

_"Because I care about you and any sacrifice is worth it if only to ensure your success in this world."_

"I returned to the school for the remainder of the year, petulantly squandering my grandmother's troubles in keeping me enrolled by barely finishing the year with passing marks. It was on the day after my return from the Academy, and the first day of summer vacation, that I heard the news."

_Kaji, fourteen for the moment but not for long, was happily walking down the corridor of the palace. Her step held a sort of spring to it, enough to fool most of the staff since they were not deeply acquainted with her. Inside, she held a deep set anxiety. Her heart was still raw from the proceedings of the school term, though it had been more of a background ache the entire morning. She felt the uneasiness stiffen her movement until she forcibly urged her muscles to loosen themselves and keep her air of false levity about her._

_A messenger ran toward her, his head bowed and chest moving up and down as if he had just run from the other side of the palace. His light brown eyes caught the light in pretty speckles of amber mixed in auburn as the sun shifted. Hair messily fell down his sloped shoulders as he stopped to catch his breath, not more than a few yards away. It was customary for royalty to be addressed only when at one's best appearance, so he made a hasty adjustment of his wardrobe and physical state before using long strides to close in the distance. The fact that he was still barely cutting the mark of etiquette only aided in fraying Kaji's nerves. _

_His hands shook, pretty eyes trying to find anything to look at that might get him out of the horrible situation. But, he had lost and drawn the short straw, so consequences had to be dealt with. His fingers twitched nervously and he had to start a few times before quickly squeaking, "M-my Princess… the Royal Princess Azula… she… her… there was…"_

_"Speak, or I will have your tongue branded with the words you wished to tell me," Kaji snapped. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep calm in the wake of the man's intense discomfort. Her foot tapped expectantly; her fingers curled around her crossed arms; her eyes bore into his, watching the fear and sorrow mingle in a hypnotic miasma of amber._

_"Your grandmother, the Princess Azula, died in her sleep last night. I was told to relay this message to you and take you to prepare for the funeral ceremony."_

_Cold. That was the first sensation to break over the stunned firebending prodigy. Of all of the misfortunes the man could have borne; she would never have been able to believe such a ridiculous one. Azula could not have died. Never. There had been a consuming sense of perpetuity every time Kaji had set eyes upon her grandmother. Azula had always lived. She had been the first person Kaji had seen when she had opened her eyes. Azula had been the first to hear her speak her first words. Azula had been there always, and Kaji had always thought that the woman would continue to be an eternal presence in her life. To suddenly have such a thing swept away, drowned in the remorseless current of time and age, was a travesty; an impossibility. _

_"Leave me," she finally whispered._

_"O-oh," the messenger stuttered. He really didn't want to be a pile of ashes in the wake of the frightening girl's loss, but he had to finish his directive, else he would have to face another form of wrath. "Sh-she instructed me to give this to you, before… before 'it' happened."_

_The slip of paper was transferred from the trembling hand of the servant to the frozen fingers of the Princess Kaji. The girl's hands were cooler than he would have expected, but such things were to be expected from firebenders. If Azula had been the motivation for the youth's flames, there would be a heavy toll on the prodigy's abilities. Hurriedly, not willing to find out just how much of a blow the Royal's bending had taken, the man spun around and quickly walked away. He would have someone send for the girl once the funeral had begun; there was no point in trying to usher her into the gilded chamber leading to the front steps of one of the palace's courtyards where the final pyre would be lit just yet._

_Kaji stood for hours, without truly being within her body. Her hand roughly felt that there was something important nestled between her fingers, but she had forgotten what it was. All she knew was that she could not let it go. Her eyes could not see. She feared that she had gone blind before she realized that she didn't care in the slightest. Her lights had been snuffed out one by one. Her mother before she had even been able to remember what she looked like; her father from grief and estrangement; her love because of a stupid misconception of right and wrong ways to feel; and now her grandmother. She could not even dream of a world where she did not have Azula's guidance in everything that she did. There was something intimately wrong with the realization. _

_Slowly, she came back to reality. It was sunset; she had arrived at noon. The hours had gone by like nothing was wrong. She growled, wishing that the sun's light would extinguish itself, or eat up everything in a blazing inferno to mark the end of her inner light. There was nothing left, nothing for her to hold on to anymore. Then a light crackle of unfolding paper. Kaji looked down into the palm of her right hand where, between her palm and her middle and index fingers, was a piece of crumpled parchment. Tentatively, it was opened. Within read:_

I know how the birds fly, how the fishes swim, how animals run. But there is

the Dragon.

I cannot tell how it mounts on the winds through the clouds and flies through heaven.

Today I have seen

the Dragon.

_Kaji marveled at the words. They meant nothing. Not that she could imagine. Her grandmother had been a clever woman, perhaps too clever at times for a young mind in mourning. Kaji's eyes flickered through the words, memorizing the faltering script, with its slight blemishes caused by a body near its end. To see the Dragon. Was the Dragon symbolic of Azula? Had she finally reached the heavens on the wings she had been born to possess? Or was it something else, something deeper. Turning the sheet on its back, Kaji noticed a slight yellow splotch on the far right corner. Intrigued, the girl lit a finger, glowing a dull orange though the hue was ignored for the time being, and held it below the corner. Far enough was it, to not get burned and as the heat seeped in through the folds of parchment, the hidden letters became visible. It was a name, something Island. –ber. –mber. Ember. Kaji flipped the card over once more, gazing into the prose. The Dragon. Azula had trained her to finish what she had not been able to. Kaji could not give in simply because she no longer had Azula to personally lay down her next move. Clutching the paper to her chest, Kaji rushed back to her room and grabbed the duffel bag she had not yet unpacked, filled with most of the necessities for travel. A few extra precautions and she was off into the rapidly chilling evening. She knew that she could not be caught by her father or any of the guards. Her exit would have to be unnoticed. Saying a silent prayer for her passed mentor, she disappeared from the memory of the few people who had known of her existence._

"The address was for the old beach house Azula's teachers Lo and Li had lived in. It had been deserted for years, so no one really would have thought to look there. I made connections with followers of Ozai and the old regime scattered across the world. You met some of them in the Northern Water Tribe. Others were secretive benefactors willing to lend me monetary support. I enlisted Agent Kain's support and the Dai Li as a foothold in the Earth Kingdom. My grandmother had been planning for the rise of the Fire Nation for decades before my birth. I was simply the final missing piece. And everything was coming together. Upon Prince Iroh II's coronation- I had just turned nineteen- I was to seize the throne, which was the simplest part of the entire scheme. After that, I set my sights on undermining the Earth King through a new, highly addictive drug, called Opium. Having economic control of Ba Sing Se and its legislative body was just about as good as military conquest. The Water Tribes were weaker, easier to take down when I had the right cover. The plan was nearly flawless, except…"

"Me," Korra finished.

Kaji nodded, "The Avatar had always been a wild card, but you had been locked up in the training facility of your masters for the majority of the time I spent working on my plans. It was only after I met you that I recognized that I was becoming a liability to my own purpose."

"Love is not a liability," Korra insisted. She wanted Kaji to see that their meeting was fated. The world was never meant to be conquered and ruled by one. It was simply that, instead of being defeated by the sword, the Fire Lord had been destined to be defeated by her heart. "I am glad that we met."

"I thought about how things would have turned out had I never met you," Kaji murmured. Korra's heart sank. The firebender continued, "I couldn't do it. It hurt too much to even fathom a universe where I had never been able to be around you.

There was silence. The story had been told. The individual schematics and tactical calculations mattered not. Korra couldn't help but feel relieved. The things she had learned were not easy to process, but she was happy that she had been given a small window to Kaji's life. She could not have felt better, even in the solemnity of the bittersweet memories. Still, if there was ever anything predictable about the Royal, it was that she could not let go of her promise to her caregiver. Looking at the forlorn way with which Kaji stared at her feet, Korra knew that her battle for the firebender was hardly over.

"I-" they both began simultaneously. Twins could not have been more synchronized than the two girls trapped within the enclosed space, each blushing and chewing at their bottom lip while scooting their legs up to enfold them with their arms.

Kaji was the first to finish, surprising the both of them, "I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

The confession was unexpected, to say the least. Korra had always believed that Kaji was a woman who held an assured path in front of her and would determinedly do whatever was necessary to achieve the goal at the end of it. In a way, it was justification for the both of them, a reason for their places on opposite sides of the resurging world war. It had justified Kaji's rejection of Korra's olive branch when she had come to the Fire Nation so long ago, questioning the extent to which the Royal loved her. It had justified Kaji's attacks on the Northern Water Tribe, her deceptions, her lies. That wasn't to say, however, that Kaji's conviction had ever served as excusing for her actions. A deep part of Korra would never completely forget the pain of having her heart broken for the second time, so close to its rejuvenation. No, never would it be enough for that, but it felt so final. That finality had made it possible for Korra to find the determination with which to choose the world over her lover- even if the decision still tore at her insides and overturned her entire being. But now, to have the one-mindedness of the firebender's character placed in doubt also brought doubt on Korra's righteousness. The issue became whether she could, in good conscience and without regret, give Kaji over to whatever punishment awaited her upon their return if there was even the smallest possibility that the firebender would choose to love her.

"My entire life, my existence, it was all for the sole purpose of achieving what my predecessors could not. I was to rekindle the honor of Sozin's line and make amends for the failures of Ozai, Zuko, and Azula; now, with this," the gesture was a tight clench of the fingers of the right hand over the fabric hanging above the flesh and bone covering the throbbing heart of the girl who no longer resembled a fearsome creature of power; just a very frightened, very confused, very mortal girl. "What do I do when I don't want to do that, but I have known nothing else?"

Korra shifted as close to the inferno dwelling within the rags adorning the frail Fire National as she dared. She could not have hoped to muster enough courage to grasp the extended fingers of the left hand that had slipped from its place over Kaji's knees to lie flat against the gravelly ground; instead, she tried to convey as much comfort as possible through the synapse between their legs, now only a centimeter or less apart.

"You learn something else," Korra whispered.

Kaji silently shook with hysterical laughter, finding the prospect both futile and tantalizing, "Like what? I was born out of destruction… and destruction is what I am destined for. I cannot know anything else."

Korra's hand flew across the chasm between them, connecting with the Royal's left cheek in a resounding slap that left her hand stinging as well as the compulsory burning. Kaji, herself, looked like she had just seen a four hundred foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings trot through a meadow in a flowery tutu. Her hand slowly, laced with uncertainty, came to rest upon the tender flesh of her reddened cheek. The twinge of discomfort was unmistakable, and yet so foreign to her. Her body had suffered much abuse, as was normal for a warrior's lifestyle, but being struck in such a manner was quite anomalous for her.

"I'm not going to say sorry for that," Korra tucked her hand into her armpit to nullify some of the discomfort by suppressing the pain receptors. Her face was pulled into a stubborn pout as she stared down the dumbstruck girl sitting opposite of her. "You are an idiot if you believe that. I don't know who got that into your head- because I can tell it wasn't your grandmother and she seems to be the only one whose opinions hold sway over you- but whoever it was must have been a fucking magician to be able to remove all common sense from your brain!"

Kaji heard the words, and in some primitive alcove of her mind, she did comprehend their meaning. For the most part, unfortunately, all other thought patterns had been sharply interrupted. All that managed to come to the forefront of her addled head, and escape her gaping mouth, was, "You… you just slapped me."

"And I would do it again!"

"W-what? Why?" the silly quirk of Kaji's eyebrows and the way her mouth was still unable to comprehend how to shut itself was nearly enough to thaw the iciness with which Korra regarded her. Nearly, but not quite.

"Why? Because you deserved it!" There was no filter anymore. Whether the screen of politeness had been simply drawn or completely cut to ribbons mattered little. The Avatar smacked the floor to quell the urge to give Kaji another smack for being so dense and injuring her hand further. "All of this self-pity and talking about destiny… It won't work with me. You did what you did because you felt it was what would bring you happiness, or some form of gratification. So don't say that you were created for destroying things. If you did something, then you did it for a reason, but it was your choice!"

Kaji's clenched her hands into tight fists, her knuckles whitening. She despised the truth with which the words rang. It had been a cowardly act to blame such a fickle, uncertain thing as 'fate' for the actions she had committed. Still, the lingering effects of breeding and upbringing held a firm grip over her instinctual reflexes. She had never really been very good at 'fixing' something that was broken. She had been taught that what was broken was so because it had been weak, and therefore it would never be worth the effort of nurturing it back to health. Was it not more prudent to search for an improvement?

"I was never any good at fixing or healing anything," the firebender said her thoughts aloud. Her mouth quirked down, unhappily remembering the one time she had tried to help a young bird with a broken wing when she had been five or six years old. She had received a scathing scolding and the bird had soon died in her little, crude hands in spite of her good intentions.

"You fixed me," Korra breathed. She had never revealed the extent to which Kaji had uplifted her. The Fire Lord, for all of the misleading remarks and subtle betrayals, had been the one thing Korra had desperately needed. She had been the one who showed Korra that there was life after love lost.

"And then I tore down everything I had built with you like the idiot that I am," the self-loathing caked every syllable bit out from between gritted teeth. "I should have recognized that what I had was worth more than the conquest of the world ever could amount to."

Korra was left speechless for a second. It was finally out in the open. The regret, but also the complete spectrum with which the Royal felt she loved the Avatar. Kaji had said it; the world, forgotten in sacrifice to Kaji's passion. Her fists were clenched around handfuls of dirt; she liked having something solid to feel when everything seemed to be disintegrating around her.

"You know, doing something for yourself every once in a while, isn't betraying Azula," Korra treaded lightly over the fractured ice of Kaji's psyche. "She would have wanted you to be happy in the end. I didn't know her, but I'm sure that, because of all that you said, she loved you and she wanted you to live your life without regrets. Maybe that's why she wrote the letter to you. She had seen what her ancestors had strived to do and how they went about doing it; she saw what her father had wanted; she had reflected on her own desires and she recognized that she had only done what had been expected of her… until she had you. She saw the Dragon when she saw you finding love and finding your own way in the world, without the chains of obligation and others' ambitions to keep you from soaring."

Kaji gaped at the younger girl, reveling in her unforeseen analytical insight. Smiling, she playfully remarked, "You know, sometimes you're smarter than you look."

"Whatever," Korra rolled her eyes at the witticism. "At least I'm not the dunderhead that couldn't figure it out until the end of the world."

"True," Kaji relented, "but you were always raised to be the hero. Some of us had more ambiguous upbringings."

**P.S: Thanks for reading. I appreciate every view and favorite and follow. It makes me happy that the story is being read. Reviews help me see whether you enjoyed it or not and each one is cherished to the utmost, but just knowing that people open up their time for the chapters is a really cool thing. Full of love for you all, I hope you enjoyed. PM me, or review, or just read. All of the above make my day. Sorry for any grammatical errors; Word can't catch 'em all and neither can I. See you next chapter. :)**


	35. Agni's Blood

**A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't update sooner. I was planning to on Thursday but life caught up with me and I haven't had a minute on my computer until earlier today. As it is, I hope that this chapter was worth the wait. You can let me know either way by leaving one of those beautiful little messages known as reviews. I haven't had one in about a month and am feeling rather lonely. Anyway, enough about my problems, on with the show!**

**Disclaimer: Were I to own A:LOK, I would definitely add Kaji in as a character. Sadly, I do not and she will forever be only a figment of my imagination.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

_Kaji looked down into the palm of her right hand where, between her palm and her middle and index fingers, was a piece of crumpled parchment. Tentatively, it was opened. Within read:_

I know how the birds fly, how the fishes swim, how animals run. But there is

the Dragon.

I cannot tell how it mounts on the winds through the clouds and flies through heaven.

Today I have seen

the Dragon.

_Kaji marveled at the words. They meant nothing. Not that she could imagine._

"My entire life, my existence, it was all for the sole purpose of achieving what my predecessors could not. I was to rekindle the honor of Sozin's line and make amends for the failures of Ozai, Zuko, and Azula; now, with this," Kaji's voice rose in pitch with each desperate word, "What do I do when I don't want to do that, but I have known nothing else?"

"You learn something else," Korra whispered.

"I was never any good at fixing or healing anything," the firebender said her thoughts aloud.

"You fixed me," Korra breathed.

"And then I tore down everything I had built with you like the idiot that I am," the self-loathing caked every syllable bit out from between gritted teeth. "I should have recognized that what I had was worth more than the conquest of the world ever could amount to."

"You know, doing something for yourself every once in a while, isn't betraying Azula," Korra treaded lightly over the fractured ice of Kaji's psyche. "She would have wanted you to be happy in the end. I didn't know her, but I'm sure that, because of all that you said, she loved you and she wanted you to live your life without regrets. Maybe that's why she wrote the letter to you. She had seen what her ancestors had strived to do and how they went about doing it; she saw what her father had wanted; she had reflected on her own desires and she recognized that she had only done what had been expected of her… until she had you. She saw the Dragon when she saw you finding love and finding your own way in the world, without the chains of obligation and others' ambitions to keep you from soaring."

They had stayed in their little space for a few days. Apparently, despite the fact that Kaji was still within her physical body, she felt neither hunger nor thirst; both girls were quite thankful for that. The wound in the firebender's leg was looking much better. The festering had become a thing of the past and the angry red swelling had diminished to an aggravated pink. The scab itself was closing slowly and Kaji had been able to walk a few paces with support from the cave wall and a staff fashioned for her with Korra's earthbending. It was a bleary day in the dessert; the storm had come back in all of its glory. The gloom had done some to dampen the general mood of excited expectancy lingering from Kaji's brush with her past and Korra's window into the inner workings of the firebender. The quiet morning- at least, they had deemed it slightly lighter than the terrain a few heartbeats before and thus gone on to call the silvery grey 'morning'- left the former girl mulling over her continued presence in the surreal world of the bodiless and departed. If she were to let the truth run through her hazy mind, still foggy from a nap she had taken a moment or so ago, she was continually finding herself drifting to the fact that her entire body was abuzz with the strange sensation that had slowly been creeping over her skin since she had been so rudely dumped in the middle of the sandstorm torn desert. It was emptiness inside of her. An emptiness where some form of foreignness should have been residing. Kaji longed for a sign, a reflexive urge, to tell her that she did not belong in the spiritual plain; all of the stories she had heard, although limited, held the recurring theme of the protagonist's strife with the abnormality of their body's continued presence in a land not meant for the living. It did not take much paranoia to corrode the Fire Lord's confidence in her imminent return to her home world when she felt as much a part of the world she was currently occupying as the one she had left. Staring across from her where Korra was subconsciously picking through her strands of hair for lack of anything to do, the firebender reluctantly decided to voice her concerns. She did not wish to break the younger girl's peace- especially when peace was so difficult to come by in the clustered living conditions they were trapped in- but her own tranquility was in mortal peril if she could not at least voice her concerns. And, if Korra happened to find some sort of solution for her, Kaji would be all the better for it.

"So," Kaji sighed, eyes closed and mouth straightened in a tight line, "Am I dead? I mean, I know this is some sort of limbo state that my body is in; how long do I have before I can't leave?"

Korra's eyes widened. They had never breached the unsaid barrier before; never really allowed themselves to think on the fact that, despite the continued existence of Kaji's earthly shell, she was still stuck in a place not meant for those living. Or, at least, the Avatar had tried to stay away from the topic. To have Kaji ask such a thing out loud; it clearly stated to the contrary from the Fire Lord's perspective. In most cases, even the Fire Lord's rudimentary knowledge of the workings of the Spirit World had outlined the one underlining principle, what was living was rejected. And as of yet, Kaji had yet to feel any sort of pull toward her home. And, despite having a gut feeling telling her otherwise, Korra could not answer her. She could not pretend to know what had ensued after Kaji had touched the necklace. For all she knew, Kaji had indeed become a part of the celestial place, never allowed to return to the land of the Four Nations. On the flip-side- and the one Korra preferred to think on- it was completely plausible for Kaji to simply be a traveler of sorts, sucked into the ghostly world but also able to leave it whenever she pleased.

"I want you to try something," Korra said firmly. She was unsure whether what she about to suggest would do any good; if it went awry there was a great probability of it completely backfiring on the both of them. Still, she had to try, "Concentrate really hard on where you were last. Can you do that?"

Kaji nodded, taking in a series of breathes and concentrating on the image of the curtained room lying in far away Omashu. Once the picture had ingrained itself in her mind, she gave Korra another nod as indication for her to proceed.

"Alright," Korra rummaged through the dusty stockpiles of her first lessons. She had always been somewhat ill-suited for explaining the intricacies of out-of-body experiences. That had been Tenzin's area of expertise. "Imagine your body within the room; see it with your third-eye… and try to reach out for it."

Kaji grimaced from her exertions . She felt for the plush cushions of the futon sitting near the center of the carpeted floor, gazing down at the little pillows where they had fallen on the ground. She had been kneeling a few steps away from the furniture; this she knew from behind the haze of physical pain that came with the memory of her last few moments in the room. Still, she refused to be pushed out of her trance by such a minor inconvenience. But no matter how many times she ran her spectral fingers through the indented weaving of the carpet; no matter how much she tried to project an image of herself sitting on said floor; no matter how many beads of sweat clouded her brow, she could not do it. It was only after her eyes snapped open that she realized that there was a burning in her lungs from a lack of oxygen. Her hands hit the dirty cave ground as she doubled over and took in rasping inhales before expelling the air in a series of coughing fits. Her entire body felt like it had been at the receiving end of a battering ram and she would not have been in the least bit surprised if splotches of black and purple bruising lined her skin.

Korra watched the firebender hunch over, flinching at the dry heaving sounds coming from behind a curtain of hair. It was apparent that, along with Kaji's consciousness, her body had been taken into the fold as well. Koh's necklace had served its purpose fantastically, and now Korra had no inkling as to how she was going to get the Fire Lord out. She needed to find someone who could; she needed to find Aang. And to do that, she needed to get out of here… wherever 'here' happened to be.

"Kaji-"

"Don't make me do that again," Kaji wheezed, her hand moving to grasp at the loose shirt right above her heart.

"No, not again," Korra promised. It was getting to be so damn hard not to embrace the fragile, frightened girl; only the consequence of spontaneous combustion kept the Avatar safely pressed against her opposite wall. What she was about to say next, she knew would not be taken well, but she had to try to find her mentor- any one of them. "Listen, I need to find some way of getting you out of here. But to do that, I need to…"

How to say it… she did not want to use the words 'leave you,' they sounded too permanent and devastating. Before Korra's brain could come up with a suitable euphemism, a small voice came from the opposing side of the alcove, "You have to go… don't you?"

"Only for a little while," Korra promised. She instinctively reached out, scooting toward the hunched figure half obscured by the opaque shades of grey and black prevailing in the tiny space. Her fingers were barley brushing against one of Kaji's bangs, the one sticking out at an odd angle that brought it closer to Korra than the rest, when she felt the feverish temperature increase. Her hand fell back to the ground and her head sunk down slightly.

"It's fine," Kaji looked up and graced the younger girl with the worst excuse for a smile that Korra had ever seen. If anything, the attempt made her heart shrivel even more than if Kaji had screamed at her or broken down into a miserable wreck. Perhaps it was the fact that Kaji had always been such a good liar in the past, always able to pull on the perfect mask, that made the gruesome grin all the more abominable; perhaps not.

"I will, I promise. I promise," Korra tried to convey a confidence in her repetition that she knew she did not possess.

"I know," the smile faded once its owner recognized that it was subpar and ineffective. Instead, Kaji just shrugged her shoulders and sank further into her little ball, dragging her legs in so that she could rest her chin in the crook between her knees. "I just… Never mind."

Korra waited, staring at Kaji for a while. She really did not want to leave the girl on her own, but in order to find Aang, she had to spiritually teleport herself to wherever he was, and that required her spectral form to leave their decrepit dwelling. The change in her firebender was far too drastic to ignore, however. Kaji had never displayed such intense apprehension before, even in the wake of Katara's bloodbending which, in itself, was quite the accomplishment. Something was off. There had to be an outlying factor that the girl was not revealing to the young Avatar. The same factor that had been eluding Korra since she had awoken in the crummy cave in the middle of nowhere.

"Kaji, did something happen to make y-"

Her question was cut off by a loud crash coming from just outside of the miniscule space they occupied. Rock chunks flew into the cave, clinking off of the rock face and ricocheting until they hit the back wall and lay still. A terrible sound echoed from somewhere beyond the storm, something close to rusted metals being ground together; both girls rushed to cup their ears and give reprieve to their auditory systems.

The sand barrier at the forefront of the cave burst apart as a massive snout pushed its way through the opening. The jaws that followed were open in a fearsome growl, salivating streams of dark brown mud pouring out as its serpentine tongue lashed out, tasting the air for its prey. The teeth were made of granite chunks connected to a maw of bedrock, each reaching the length of Korra's hand and forearm. A massive, clawed paw struck the ground with force enough to cause a crater-like indentation to sprout as the thing tried to push itself closer. The Avatar had not even noticed her frantic backpedalling until her back hit the end of the alcove; and still, the wandering tongue was only centimeters away from her face, mouth only slightly farther. Only, it was no longer inching forward. In fact, the thing was shaking its gigantic head as though it was being frustrated by an unknown irritant.

"Wh-what is this thing?" next to her, Kaji's breathes came in sporadic bursts of hyperventilation.

"Dilong," Korra answered, almost robotically. The earth dragon writhed in its fury, apparently far too big to cram its way into the miniature cave any farther than it already had. Its piercing shrieks caused little droplets of blue ectoplasm to drip from Korra's ears and a much darker vermillion to trickle from Kaji's.

Korra's heartbeat sped up as the thing's nostrils flared and sent a huff of warm air into her face. Cracks were lacing the ceiling and walls of their sanctuary and prison. There was no other way in or out, except for the entrance physically blocked by the creature trying to consume them. The danger was finally enough to snap her from her stupor. Her legs pushed her up so quickly that the top of her head collided with the sloped roof of stone. After a smattering of cursing and rubbing the sore spot, the Avatar reassessed the mess she had gotten into. The creature was one of the earth spirits residing in the Spirit World. Completely devoid of pleasant temperament, the Dilong was an extremely territorial spirit, not to mention perpetually hungry. Their means of escape was blocked, but all that was needed to free them was an instant of an opening.

"Kaji," Korra whispered. She knew the beast would not be able to understand them, but it still made her feel infinitely safer drawing less attention to herself by making loud noises.

"Yeah?" the firebender affirmed, awaiting the plan she knew would follow.

"I'm pretty sure that being in the Spirit World doesn't really affect your firebending all that much," the wince from the girl next to her was not lost upon the Avatar; they had no time, however, for questions so she chose to ignore it, "I need you to momentarily blind it with a burst of flame. I'll bend the cave wall so that we have enough maneuverability to squeeze out of here and into the open. Got it?"

Korra did not wait for the reply. Her mental clock ticked down 3…2…1… and shouted, "Now!"

Kaji grit her teeth and sent the strongest surge of golden fire she could muster under the circumstances without singeing them into the molten rocks of the small cavern. The plumes rocketed in a perfect trajectory toward the Dilong's snarling maw and tiny eyes. The protective lids closed seconds too late; the creature reared its massive head back as waves upon waves of agony hit its brain from the sensitive nerves within the burned corneas. Korra wasted no time in lowering her stance. The telltale full horse position transferred smoothly into a forward horse as she trust her hands forward and out, the rock face folding in on itself at her command. The crevice was not huge; barely enough to fit her body if she straightened herself flush against the stones. Still, with the spiked jaw receded to a less imposing position, the Avatar found her legs and made a beeline for the exit. Two steps away and she burst clear.

Kaji watched Korra fling herself forward, her legs moving in such ways as to make her appear to be flying more than running. Adrenaline visibly leaked from her pores as she jumped against the cave's sides and jettisoned herself out of the entrance. The firebender, aware that it was 'do or die' time, stiffly rose to her feet. Her injuries protested vehemently against any such movement, especially her leg which was still stiff from the scabbing wound and extended time left unused. Her first steps were more akin to hobbles, taking her barely a few inches. The pain intensified as her foot caught against a protrusion and sent the Fire Lord stumbling into the opposite wall, searching for something to balance on. Amidst the torrent of stimuli informing her to preferably cease and desist, Kaji's eyes turned to keep her exit in view. The Dilong's teeth were gnashing against the wall upon which she was leaning, not nearly far enough for her liking. The chasm between its head and the other wall was no more than a hair's breadth from her standpoint. Hot, musky breathes that smelled of sand and rust drifted to her as the earth dragon continued to fight against its confines. Wisps of putrid, sulfuric blood dripped from a gash against its right cheek where, in favor of the crippled firebender, a jagged stone spear had jammed itself securely. Kaji gathered her wits about her, clenching her teeth together against the urge to scream, and pushed herself toward the left side of the monster. For a moment, the jaunting strides bore her through, out in sight of her goal and the panting Avatar just beyond. A flicker of wind and sand stung her cheeks and her eyelids lowered to keep the granules out with her long eyelashes. Then, a wrenching sound and a flurry of rocks burst from her side. The dragon, in all of its fury and strength, had managed to dislodge itself; the momentum with which it had pulled free had quickly converted into a powerful whiplash to its left. The impact was astounding. Kaji felt like a beetle caught between the hammer and the anvil. Her body instantly shifted sideways in an attempt to shield her organs, but the prongs of hardened flesh and rock were more than her ribs could take. The crack was resounding.

Korra didn't think. She acted. She only saw and heard, touched and tasted, smelled the familiar metallic tang of blood. Her feet flitted against the sands, ethereal and blue like waves of the ocean crashing into the surf. Her hands wove in intricate arcs and punches as she pulled the ground out from under the beast's giant serpentine body. The earth dragon shrieked again as its legs were consumed by the sands that had birthed it. Its tail lashed out, blindly nearing Korra's lithe form. She deftly evaded it in a soaring leap, arching her back so that she could flip in midair. Her hands never ceased their frantic motions, bending the very fabric of the celestial plain to her will. The sands aloft in the air became cohesive masses before sharpening into points and loosing barrages against the entrapped creature writhing in the sinking earth. No stones provided support for the heavy arms as they pulled upward. The struggles only served to further sink the posterior half of the Dilong. Screaming, it lifted its head out of the hole in the ground that had been the girls' home for the better part of their stay in the Spirit World. The craning neck trashed about until it shook away the remaining fragments of stone debris and blood. Small stripes of red were visible amongst the waterfall of yellow oozing from the two tiny eyes and the marring wounds along the lower jaw and cheeks.

Not waiting for the Dilong to recover its remaining senses, Korra rushed onto its snaking back. The footholds were loose and constantly in motion as the scales relayed her foreign pressure to the primitive survival cortex nestled in the dragon's cranium. One misstep and she could feel that she would have lost the opportunity. Her feet stayed sure, rushing her on, up the spinal column, past the flexing shoulder blades and ascending the winding neckline. Her fist burned with transparent flames, almost a kindred blue to Kaji's if not quite as threatening of an inferno. She took a jump; hoping gravity would intensify her finishing blow. Her fist neared at threatening velocity, gaining speed and power with each millisecond bringing her closer to her foe. A screech from above had the dragon turn its massive skull away from Korra's onslaught, her fire connecting with the right spike coming out of the top of the dragon's head along with some of the frilled smaller spines along the jaw line. She had no time to curse; the ground coming up on her quickly. Korra twisted in midair, a cat spinning to land on her feet; plumes slowing her descent slightly. Her feet connected briefly before she convulsed into a protective roll. Her knees felt jarred by the impact, but not enough to impede her much. Forgetting the Dilong, the Avatar turned to the entrance of the cave where she could barely make out a slouched form leaning against the left cave wall. Korra's analytical mind told her to keep focus on the immediate threat; to turn around and find what had become of the serpentine creature ready the engulf them both to quell its hunger. Her dominant concern, however, was for the girl weakly breathing a few yards away from her. Racing away from the danger, praying that the intervening force which had stolen her victory from her would be enough of a distraction, Korra urgently climbed the dunes leading to Kaji.

From afar, the damage did not appear quite as extensive. Korra allowed some semblance of calm to wash over her. Up close, it was an entirely different scene. Kaji was not bleeding much. At least, not on the outside. Beneath the rags adorning the crumpled body was an extensive network of bruising. No bones had broken through the skin, but Korra could see the unnatural fluctuations in the firebender's chest. Parts of her skin were sunken while ridges of bone lifted up the stretched flesh in places that should not have risen to such extent. Lifting the shirt an inch or so above Kaji's belly exposed the purple discoloration in the skin; the bruises extended in a sickening pattern along the pale expanse of Kaji's upper torso. Gulping for air, Kaji's hand shakily reached for Korra's. It stilled just centimeters away, unsure as to the effect the contact would have on the Avatar. Korra felt the guilt was over her anew.

"I-I'm so-" Kaji gasped, coughing up blood as her punctured lungs threatened to collapse under her sternum.

Korra held up a finger, gently keeping it aloft over Kaji's trembling lips, "Hush," she compelled the injured firebender into silence, "You shouldn't talk."

Kaji seemed to be willing to comply, overcome by the sharp agony wafting through her. Yet, after a moment, her eyes lit with a sudden resolve. Her hand gripped the loose fabric of Korra's shirt, carefully avoiding any flesh that might shirk away from her intensified body heat, and she weakly pulled the younger girl closer. Her eyes were having a hard time concentrating on objects, everything coming out as a hazy outline. Still, her tongue felt well enough to formulate her thoughts into words, so she did, "I- Korra I- I need you to listen to me."

Korra's eyebrows scrunched and her mouth opened to insert a well-meant interjection, but Kaji's hand closed tightly around her shirt, indicating that the Fire Lord had no intention of being interrupted. Kaji was finding it ever increasingly difficult to breathe; she had to say it now, if she was ever going to. Briefly, she wondered what would happen to her if she died in the Spirit World. Would she become a normal spirit, sent to the final resting place allotted to her as per the path she had chosen for her life? That seemed the most viable option. She doubted that losing her body in the spectral realm would allow her to return to the land of the living. Still, eternal rest held a subtle charm to it. No more struggles; just peace.

Korra's shaking brought her back; her hand had fallen in her stupor and she could feel the heated sands under her, growing ever cooler under her skin. Her mouth felt dry as she opened it, "Hey, hey," Kaji waved in front of Korra's bowed face, pleading for her attention. "I don't want you to cry for me. Korra, I- I know that I have made mistakes. I see them plainly now. I have lied for so long; I do not know what sincerity is anymore. But I do know that my heart starts beating whenever you are near me and I can breathe again, through the deluge and the flood. Whether that is love, I cannot say, for I do not know what love is. Hell, sometimes I doubt anyone does. But I don't need to know it or understand what it means to feel it. All I know is; I want you near me for as long as I exist. So don't cry for me. You will always have me."

"Don't say it like you are leaving me," Korra's voice shook with the effort from not unleashing the tears burning to come out. The sadness welling in her heart suffocated the butterflies of joy in her stomach. Kaji's passion for her meant nothing if Korra would not be there to hold the younger girl in her arms or caress her lips with a searing kiss."You are going to be fine! You survived up 'til now, you can't die! Not when we haven't even gotten out of this blasted desert. I promised that I would save you. I promised. I promised," each word grew quieter until there was only silence and Korra's murmuring lips moving without sound.

Kaji's eyes glowed golden, widening as a beam of light burst out from behind the bowed back of the Avatar. Her body froze in fear, before melting into calm submission. If it was to be her end, at least it was beautiful. Korra saw the reflection of the sudden yellow bud flowering along her firebender's dimming golden irises. The play of warm sunlight was fluorescent enough to cover some of the girl's pupils, creating an illusion of slits instead of the usual round holes. Dragon's eyes. The shockwave hit them soon after, distinct in a shower of dust flying past them. The sound of the collision was only drowned out by the metallic shriek of a creature in the final stages of its demise. Fearing that somehow, by looking away, Korra would instigate Kaji's passing, she refused to turn her gaze away from the girl until a resounding thud shook the very ground beneath her. Turning whilst using her body as a protective shield in front of Kaji's broken body, the Avatar beheld the Dilong's growling teeth. The eyes were milky, a crust formed over them to keep the damaged tissue from infection, but it was still evident that the life force of the beast had been extinguished. Trickles of glittering blood ran down the sides of its head, landing in piles of sand among the other trillions of particles making up the waterless sea of dunes. Smoke rose from a point in the thing's back that appeared optically abnormal from the slope of its body. It looked as though the flesh simply ended, dipping in some unseen gorge until the spines of the lower haunches rose up once more. It was not until the mass of the dragon bore it down onto its right side that Korra was able to see that the hulk of its form had been blown apart without a trace of scale or tissue to account for what once had been a complex system of living rock.

She tensed, torn between returning her attention to the fading Fire Lord behind her and searching out the cause of such a massive display of power. Not many held the capability of ripping through such a formidable, if not more primitive, spirit of nature. Choosing a mixture of the two, Korra knelt down next to Kaji, marking that the girl was thankfully still awake and breathing; her eyes then snapped up to survey the landscape. The sands had receded, as though the light had vaporized the storm itself, not simply the components of it. A steady glow thrummed from the epicenter of the explosion, charred embers of superheated rock particles sizzled in luminescent orange hues while those that had already cooled streaked the terrain in black spikes. The ball of yellow burned so brightly that Korra had to cover her eyes; her cornea drying from the intensity. Nothing from the inside of the sphere was visible. Shadows burned away until all was illuminated. It felt like the landscape had suddenly been flung into the sun's core.

To Korra's side, Kaji lay transfixed. Her gaze could not turn from the constant flux of the pulsating orb of pure warmth. It was as though her essence was being pulled from her body and into the vortex of luminescence. Her inner fire yearned to touch it, to become one with the pure cosmic energy that coalesced in the miniature star. Each ebb caused her heart to ache with longing; each flow filled her with such happiness that her chest became light as a bird's. The physical pain decreased until there was nothing but a faint stinging in her eyes from looking upon such radiance.

"Hikari," the firebender whispered. Her legs moved of their own volition, not that she would have stopped them had she been aware of their thrusts forward. _Come closer,_ the sphere beckoned, almost as if it had a voice of its own. _Bathe in my light and know what true beauty is._

Korra watched, stricken, as Kaji's battered body picked itself up and elegantly carried itself in the direction of the light. The misshapen bones and tissues were no longer askew or in danger of shredding the firebender's internal organs. Her scabs and scars vanished with each footstep, pulling farther away from Korra and closer to the unknown object. Tremors shook the Avatar as she frantically reached out for her love, not willing to let her go. Yet, no matter how desperately she clawed at the air, all she could do was kneel on the malleable ground and watch as Kaji became a silhouette, then a shade, then a glimmer, and then nothing at all; entirely consumed by the spectral sun that had fallen to earth.

Kaji briefly wondered at the tiny emptiness in her gut as she continued on into the heart of the brilliant being. The pulses she had long ago deduced to be heartbeats. Each flare washed over her with pure ecstasy, erasing all of the negativity and darkness with burning fire. At first, it had only been white and blinding, but the further in she went, the more colors had come to dance around her. Green emeralds sparkled against mirrors of cobalt. Amethysts dotted fields of vermillion. Orange dusk and golden dawn melded together into glamorous shades of something the human tongues could not portray with justice. Her heartbeats hammered within her ribcage, completely healed. The waves rushing by her sped up with it, drifting by her like water. But water could never have matched the welcoming heat. It was the embrace of the mother she never had; the kiss of the Spirits and Gods that cleansed all impurities.

Just ahead, there appeared a membrane. It was transparent, a spider's web woven into a curtain of silken threads. Kaji looked upon the womb from which the sparks of life were birthed; her eyes widened at being afforded the opportunity to behold such a sacred spectacle. It seemed utter blasphemy to disrupt the tranquil sheet, to mar such loveliness with her clumsy, flawed hands. Yet, her instincts told her that what she sought was just beyond. A tentative hand brushed along the rim, creating a fissure in the veil. The Fire Lord dipped her head just low enough to duck under the opening she had created; meticulously ensuring that she did not further damage the sacrosanct mesh.

Within, there was once again a complete whiteout of all hues and shades. The web had acted as a refractor, breaking the exuding whiteness into the myriads of colors washing outward into the world. Here, at the center, there was only the elemental form of light. Nothing to bend or break it. Nothing to interfere. Nothing to interrupt. Kaji walked into the hallowed space, awaiting the arrival of whatever lay there for her. She could sense that she was not alone. No mere human would be allowed such close proximity to such immense energy without the guidance of a particularly potent Spirit.

Kaji turned on the spot three times before her eyes fixated on the figure of a man standing to her left. His skin was tanned, but not dark like the Tribesmen. Chest bared, he only wore a flowing robe wrapped around his waist and dropping down to just above his sandaled feet. His hair reached to the sky in plumes of dark crimson which turned to copper and then shiny bronze at the tips. Where his irises should have been, there was only an extension of the pupil, leaving only the whites of the eyes as the only distinction of where they ended. Markings adorned his muscular arms and abdomen, rays of sunlight and arcs of gold that would make Apollo jealous. His entire being emitted his overwhelming vigor. It was not even a thought for Kaji; her body simply slid to its knees and dipped her head onto her arms, prostrating herself before the fiery deity.

"You know who I am," the man spoke, his voice deep and resounding, even when he was not forceful in his speech.

"You are Agni, Lord of the Flame," Kaji replied, never once taking her eyes off of the whitened sheets of sand beneath her.

"That is correct," there was a smile on the God's face which seeped into his words, "And I know who you are, my child."

"I am Kaji of your bloodline," Kaji stated anyway. It was etiquette, a tradition instilled in her from a young age, "and I am honored to be in your presence."

"Stand child. All of this groveling is unbecoming of a talented wielder of my element such as you."

Kaji eased herself out of her reverent position and regained her feet. She felt it to be an act of heresy to be so informal before such a mighty, omnipotent Spirit, but she dared not go against him. He was the creator of the dragons- masters of the element signifying life and death; predecessor of the Royal line of the Fire Nation; patron to the Land of Kindling Flame.

"I sense the inner turmoil that seethes within you. It blocks the gift I have given you; your blue fire is no longer strong."

Kaji hung her head in shame at the words. Her body shook, the familiar feeling of disappointment at falling short of an expectation coloring her cheeks. Her lips were already moving in an apology, when she felt the hand gently fall on her stiff shoulder. Her skin glowed with the essence of the Fire God's touch, filling her with a thrum of soothing morphine. Her mind shirked away from the affectionate gesture, screaming of how wrong it was for a deity to place his hand atop her imperfect flesh. Despite it, she could not pull away; could not do anything but marvel at the good fortune she had been afforded.

"Karma must have taken an extended holiday," she muttered under her breath. To her surprise and growing chagrin, Agni graced her snide comment with a hearty chuckle. His smile shined with whitened teeth, nearly as blinding as the glowing orb which housed them.

"I tend to provide help to my favored children. I have been told by Tui and La that it is not polite to choose some above others, but I cannot help myself at times," Agni shrugged.

"They should not question your judgment," Kaji fiercely growled. She had not considered herself very pious- only praying and going through the motions of religion when it suited her- but the Fire God held a special place in her heart, as in the hearts of every other firebender. To have him questioned by anyone was an infraction that was unforgiveable.

"Calm my little dragon," he said in his laughing voice, a paradox of strength and softness. The nickname brought out an embarrassed blush from Kaji's cheeks. "I take no offense for it. And the Water Spirits are not why I am here."

"You are here because of my inability to produce blue fire," Kaji repeated his earlier reason. The Fire God nodded solemnly.

"I believe that you are aware as to why this is happening to you?" the question called for introspection. He wanted the Fire Lord to answer it truthfully, from her heart. Agni knew that Kaji would not dare lie to him, but it was herself he feared her words deceived.

"Korra," Kaji whispered the name. She felt the twinge of longing grow stronger in her stomach. It was almost a physical pull back the way she had come from. Her eyes followed the invisible string until the mists of white opened up and she was looking at the stunned Avatar, yet to get up from her knees.

"That's right," Agni's voice drifted into her ear from where he was leaning over her shoulder. The air that escaped his lungs with the utterance caused gooseflesh to run along her neck, but she ignored it, focusing on the awed expression plastered on Korra's face. It was obvious that the girl could see her just as clearly as Kaji was able to look at her.

Taking the opportunity to speak, Agni moved to stand between the two girls; addressing them both, he announced, "Your firebending was not completely snuffed out because you were still aware of your spark," he pointed at Korra, "Unfortunately, your conflicting obligations and emotions made it difficult for you to utilize her as a fuel source for your inner flame. Accepting her would go against your life's ambition; yet, rejecting her was never an option for you either."

Korra listened, transfixed. She had not guessed that Kaji's irregular flames had stemmed from a blockage in her resolve. If anything, she had believed that the girl's orange fire had been a consequence of the extended stay in the Spirit World. Happiness gripped her at the thought of being the spark needed to ignite Kaji's beautiful element, only to be heavily weighed down by the responsibilities that came with that sentence. She felt as though she had been handed a fragile porcelain flower that was already starting to crack in her inexperienced grasp.

Kaji similarly felt her own vulnerability. She faced the precipice. One step and everything she had been living for would no longer be relevant. Korra would be her tether, where once there had only been the promises chaining her to the side of the drop, hanging like some ragged doll with no life of its own. Still, the prospect of the uncertainty that came with the freefall- whether the harness that was her Avatar's love would keep her from crashing into the jagged rocks beneath- was terrifying and exhilarating in equal measures. Her body felt ready, the only thing holding her back being her errant mind. Trust had never been something Kaji had chosen; it always found ways to covertly slip through her defenses and nestle in her heart. Whether it was a sweet poison or an undesired antidote, the firebender doubted she would ever know.

Agni watched his daughter struggle with herself, sadly lamenting the difficult decisions that innately found his people. Fire held within it a power that was nearly impossible to control and had a particularly nasty habit of corrupting those who wielded it. So many wars, so much blood, all spilled in his name. The Spirit felt the weight of all of those prayers and declarations more than any of the others. To see Kaji's fire kindled by love rather than hate was a welcome reprieve from the past centuries. Breaking the silence gently, he came up to give Kaji's shoulder a reassuring pat, murmuring, "It is what you want that drives your fire. And I know that she is what you want."

Kaji nodded stiffly, biting her lower lip with the admission. Her heart skipped a beat at the smile that graced Korra's face, twinkling in her sapphire eyes. Her own smile was smaller, insecure, but there nonetheless. Her feet moved her into the tunnel bridging the center of the sphere of light and the desert sands. The colors swirled over her head in excitement, blinking like the aurora borealis. Each step caused her chest to quiver; her fingers twitched against her hips lightly before moving to sweep her unruly hair out of her face. Another small membrane separated her from Korra at the end of the cylindrical funnel. Kaji paused in her advance, turning slowly to look back at Agni's casually poised form; his arms folded over his muscular chest and that mischievous grin marking his approval. Her hand lifted awkwardly, unsure of how best to say her farewell to him. A simple wave did not seem to be enough for someone of his caliber. Still, when he gave her a lazy thumbs-up and a hilariously exaggerated wink, the Fire Lord found herself more than comfortable with her own informal departing gesture.

Korra didn't wait for the firebender to fully come out of the grandiose sparkling ball. She had had enough of waiting over the past few months. Instead, she hurriedly wrapped her arms around Kaji's neck, pulling her into a passionate kiss that tasted sweeter than caramel dipped in honey. Kaji too, clung to her like they were the last people on earth. Her hands rubbed up and down Korra's spectral body, relishing in the solidness of the transparent blue form. Apart from the slightly lower skin temperature, the Avatar felt just as she had in Omashu. It was only after Kaji's brain was finally able to sluggishly regain some semblance of thought that the Fire Lord pushed Korra away from her in a panic. She had completely forgotten about her strange condition, praying that she had not severely harmed the other girl in her embrace. Korra, as signified by her hurt and confused expression, had not yet come to the same realization as her Fire Nation companion.

Kaji, huffing from the lack of air she had experienced, raked her eyes over Korra's body, noting with a happy sigh that there didn't seem to be any new burn marks on the Avatar's lips. Figuring that she owed the younger girl an explanation, Kaji simply said, "I thought that touching you would scald your skin."

Korra's eyes widened as she finally understood why Kaji had moved away from her seemingly without precedent. Her hands moved up to trace her lips where she could still feel the firebender's tongue pressing for entrance. There was nothing but the delicate pressure exerted through her fingers.

"I don't feel anything," Korra affirmed.

"H-how?" Kaji wondered. Her head snapped to where Agni's presence had been, immediately locking eyes with the deity's fading essence. Her features turned from incredulous to thankful as she mouthed a quick, "I am grateful."

His voice remained after even his fiery hair was lost amongst the quickly spinning sphere, "It was you. Once you released your fire, your body no longer kept the chi burning inside."

A loud whirring sound came from the rapidly rising top-like light; its revolutions increasing in frequency until there was nothing but light spreading across the four horizons. Korra and Kaji backed away, covering their eyes with their arms only to have even that shade blasted away by the luminescence. Like a star returning to heaven, Agni rose in the sky, burning the clouds of dust in a comet of radiance. The clear, blue atmosphere beckoned with its openness and freedom. Where there had been leagues upon leagues of sand, grass and flowers now permeated the ground. Had there been birds in the sky or wildlife running along the still creek a ways away, the scenery might have been reminiscent of some of the smaller Earth Kingdom islands to the southeast. Korra's eyes lightened up as she caught sight of a familiar figure sitting with his back against a comfortably large boulder; a familiar figure she had been craving to see.

"Master Aang," she called out, running over to where the monk was meditating. His grey eyes opened at her approach, warmly welcoming her into his arms.

"Korra," he said as she happily returned the hug. "I had hoped that you would find your way to me. After I left to find medication for your firebender, the desert closed around you and I could no longer sense your location."

"Of course," Korra smirked, "Nothing I couldn't get out of somehow or other."

Kaji watched the exchange patiently, aware of the importance the monk held in Korra's life. Her own curiosity had been piqued. She had been too far gone in the cavern when they had first come in contact with one another. Here, she was able to observe him. The slight frame and bald head painted with the blue arrow reaching just above two relaxed eyebrows clearly marked the man as an Air Nomad. To meet _the _Avatar Aang, the antagonist to all of her grandmother's stories and lessons, was in and of itself an experience Kaji had never imagined herself having. His easy smile was the feature she was captivated by the most. It certainly made hating the man very difficult.

Korra must have noticed Kaji's aloof mannerism, and took it upon herself to introduce her mentor to her firebender, "Master Aang, this is Kaji."

Aang turned his smile on the disconcerted Royal, holding out a hand, "Nice to see you up and well again."

Kaji walked purposefully over. She sensed no trap in his pleasant demeanor, but that did not mean that she would completely throw caution to the wind. Korra trusted Aang, which gave a few points in his favor, however, the Fire Lord also remembered the power and ruthlessness Azula had described. This man had stolen the fire from past Fire Lord Ozai and Kaji coveted her blue flames more than her life.

"A pleasure," she said, coming up to his hand and giving it a firm shake. Once separated, the firebender inconspicuously sent up a spark to ensure that her element was still alive within her. Clear cobalt danced above her pointer finger.

Korra shrugged at Aang's questioning glance at Kaji's back. Both Avatars understood the paranoia that was still held by many after the truth about their power had been unveiled. A polite silence stretched over the three occupants of the meadow landscape. When Kaji was sufficiently pleased with her firebending capabilities, she motioned to their surroundings before proclaiming, "Not that it isn't grand to just stand around here all day, but do we actually have any notion as to how Korra and I are going to get out of here?"

Aang rose to his feet, smoothing out his colorful robes. His smile turned into a concentrated line as he collected his thoughts. His voice was level, a teacher about to impart a lesson upon a student, "I have a few hypotheses that I would be willing to try. It will not be simple; the veil is a very delicate thing and one mistake could be catastrophic for both worlds. Koh's magic is one that I have not seen before, something long lost to all but him it would appear. As such-"

"It will be nigh imposssible for you to essscape without Massster Koh'sss conssssent," a slithery tone came from behind them. The three benders turned quickly, lowering themselves into defensive crouches, hands raised to protect the open areas of their bodies. Across the field from them, wreathed in a cloak of putrid purple smoke, stood a nightmarish figure. Four long talons came out of the festering flesh of reptilian feet, surrounded by a circle of dead plants within a six foot diameter of the creature. Scales of dull indigo scales traced up sloped legs and powerful thighs. A ripped up stretch of cloth covered the torso and lower abdomen of the figure, spines poking through the material along the sides of the chest area. A belt sloped over one shoulder, carrying a Guan Dao with a blade that was longer than Korra's arm. The hands wore black gloves that ended in silver claws caked in grime and dried blood. A majority of the thing's head was covered by a darkened scarf that could have been either blue or purple at some point but had become a depressing shade of grey. Spiked hair fell over the shoulders and back, looking to be a conjunction of porcupine quills and keratin. What could be seen of the one eye in the open was that it was a golden button sewed into the flesh above the eyebrow and below the cheekbone.

Its words were spoken with a serpentine lisp, slow and pronounced. The distance between it and the group of benders held no effect on the projection of the sound. Even the scarf's heavy fabric did nothing to muffle the carefully said syllables, "He wishesss for the Fire Lord. I am Nopperabou Ichi, the firssst of Massster Koh'sss sservantss. Come quietly and neither of you will be hurt, Avatarssss."

"Make us," Korra growled. "We have you outnumbered three to one."

Nopperabou Ichi's shoulders convulsed and rasping sounds wheezed past the ugly grey rag winding itself around the Faceless' mouth. Korra's anger only intensified when she recognized it as laughter. Before she could say anything snarky, however, the creature lifted its arms into the air, looking as though it were opening up for an embrace. Behind it, from the shadows pooling to either side, emerged more grotesque figures. Three to its right and two on the left.

"It appearsss asss though you are the onesss at a disssadvantage," Nopperabou snickered. "Now, last chancssse. Give usss the girl."

**P.S: Sufficient cliffhanger? Yes, no, maybe so? Leave me a review! Hope you all enjoyed, and I will really strive to write the next chapter sooner than this one, though I make no promises since the Game of Thrones season finale is tomorrow and I may just die from the anticipation. Still, tell me that you like it, tell me that you hate it, tell me random things not pertaining to the story at all, just leave a review of any kind! Bye for now.**

**P.S.S: Dilong- Earth Spirit that takes the form of a giant dragon as found on Google**

**Hikari- means 'light' in Japanese as found on Google translate**

**Guan Dao- I can't really explain it other than it looks sort of like a broadsword on a spear. Bing has good pictures of one if you want to see what it looks like.**

**Nopperabou- faceless spirit in Japanese folklore as found on Google.**

**If there are any mistakes, grammatic or cultural, I apologize and chalk it up to artistic license. :)**


	36. The Faceless

**A/N: Hello, I am back. Sorry for the delay again. My summer assignment deadlines were looming and I have been wasting away at my computer watching the entire season one of Xena: Warrior Princess off of my dad's Netflix account. I have no excuses, just a soft spot for really back graphics and 'medieval/ greek mythology' series. Sorry it ended up being a tad bit short, but hopefully the action makes up for it. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Last I checked, nothing has changed since the last 30 somewhat chapters.**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

Taking the opportunity to speak, Agni moved to stand between the two girls; addressing them both, he announced, "Your firebending was not completely snuffed out because you were still aware of your spark," he pointed at Korra, "Unfortunately, your conflicting obligations and emotions made it difficult for you to utilize her as a fuel source for your inner flame. Accepting her would go against your life's ambition; yet, rejecting her was never an option for you either."

"I thought that touching you would scald your skin."

"I don't feel anything," Korra affirmed.

When Kaji was sufficiently pleased with her firebending capabilities, she motioned to their surroundings before proclaiming, "Not that it isn't grand to just stand around here all day, but do we actually have any notion as to how Korra and I are going to get out of here?"

Aang's voice was level, a teacher about to impart a lesson upon a student, "I have a few hypotheses that I would be willing to try. It will not be simple; the veil is a very delicate thing and one mistake could be catastrophic for both worlds. Koh's magic is one that I have not seen before, something long lost to all but him it would appear. As such-"

"I am Nopperabou Ichi, the firssst of Massster Koh'sss sservantss. Come quietly and neither of you will be hurt, Avatarssss."

Behind it, from the shadows pooling to either side, emerged more grotesque figures. Three to its right and two on the left.

"It appearsss asss though you are the onesss at a disssadvantage," Nopperabou snickered. "Now, last chancssse. Give usss the girl."

Baited breathes steamed the chilled air, mixing with the fog surrounding the small circle of trees, firs and pine, dark as obsidian against the veiled ocean of grass surrounding it. The rock fissure had been a tight fit, barely capable of cloaking them all from sight. The airbender spirit clutched at the entrance of the small dome of stone as he peered 'round it; grey eyes gazed into the mists, willing them to disperse and yet praying that they remained as an aegis from the eyes of the monstrosities coming for them. The waterbending spirit tightened her grip on the firebender's arm; the two girls nestled close against the funneling crevice. Sound seemed to have disappeared from the place, ghostly and ethereal even for the Spirit World. Kaji shivered involuntarily against the dampness that ran down from an opening in the rock and dripped inside of her clothing, trailing along her rigid spine. Korra squeezed ever tighter, breathes mingling in the closeness of their positions. Aang continued tracing the outlines of the distant trees, warped like looming charred spearheads rising out of the soggy ground.

A twig snapped. The three benders froze in place, not daring to shift in any manner and give away their sanctuary. Shadows moved across the corners of their vision, threatening danger and revealing themselves as nothing more than ghosts brought about from tense paranoia.

They had made their desperate flight from Koh's lackeys, crashing through the foliage of the once peaceful spiritual plain. Korra had been more than ready to take her chances and fight off the Faceless with all that she had. Aang, ever the level-headed one, had seen the futility of such a method. Both he and the firebending girl, Kaji, had wrestled the young Avatar from her ready stance and half carried, half dragged the Water Tribeswoman in the direction opposite the demon dolls. Using his bending, the former Avatar was able to propel them forward in a vortex of wind, landing them some leagues away from Nopperabou Ichi and the rest of Koh's goons. Cover had been difficult to find, the leveled grasslands providing nothing for miles. It had been pure good fortune that they had come upon the small oasis of evergreen foliage. Panting, they had convened inside of the sorry little natural shack. There would only be so much time before the Faceless found the only plausible hiding spot and came for them, putting a constant pressure on their hyperactive hearts. Still, the small reprieve, even such an uncertain one, was welcomed.

"What do we do," Kaji hissed. "They will find us eventually."

"We fight them," Korra retorted immediately. "Split them up in the fog and surprise them with an ambush."

"That may work for a few of them," Aang interceded, "but it will do little once the rest become wise to our tactics. Running is the only option until we have them at an advantage, or we are able to send you back to the living world."

"If we run, they will catch us. That is obvious," Korra muttered. She was done cowering from the centipede spirit. She wanted to hurt him, show him that she was not some weakling he had pressed between a rock and a hard place.

"If we fight, we will get caught faster," Kaji cut off her inner tirade. "Aang is right. The only option we have is finding a way out of here. Koh cannot get us in our plain."

"He got you here once didn't he?" Korra argued. "What makes you think he won't try again?"

Bristling, the firebender pulled herself away from the Avatar- or as much away as she could when they were all crammed on top of one another in the claustrophobic space. Her words came out before she had a chance to think clearly, "Well, maybe I'll be a little more careful about accepting gifts from you in the future."

Korra reeled. The guilt of the betrothal necklace stung deeply in her chest, only overcome by the anger born from the low attack. She bit out, "I doubt I would be giving you any more presents after we get back."

"If we get back," came the murmured reply. Golden and sapphire eyes softened with an unspoken apology. Kaji scooted slightly further back into the fissure, coming to lay her head against Korra's arm. They were unnerved, on edge, and holding together through sheer force of will. They could not let the anticipation get to them. Korra especially wrestled with her inner loathing of the wait.

"You will get back," Aang assured, his eyes never leaving the static landscape. "We just need to figure out how."

"You mentioned some ideas…" Korra said, trying to be hopeful.

"Yes, I did," Aang rubbed the back of his neck. "The simplest method would be to obtain the necklace and study its properties. Where there is a path one way, there is usually some manner with which to open a reverse effect. Korra, do you remember what happened to the necklace?"

"N-no," Korra shook her head. "It was gone when I woke up. Kaji?"

The firebender also shook her head in the negative, looking down, forlorn. Aang grimaced, pondering how best to tell the girls that he had no inclination as to any other means of returning a body to the land of the Four Nations once it had been summoned into the Spirit World. In all of his time, he had never even heard of such things occurring, much less having anyone go back. His face was enough to say it all. Kaji's teeth dug into the side of her cheek, hard enough to sting yet keeping the tissue intact.

"I just need some time. Perhaps the other incarnations- wait, hush," Aang moved away from the mouth of the alcove, hands sliding him as far into the shadows as possible without smashing the girls into the rock. A branch quivered, followed by a series of muffled creaks from above and shuffles from below.

Shades flitted across the opening of between the fallen slabs of granite. This time, they were no mere illusions. A hiss echoed through the area, steaming with venomous intent. Korra looked on, over Aang's sloped shoulder, into the grove of pine. The movement had stilled.

The branch cracking under the weight put on it was like a thunderclap shredding the sky to pieces. At first it was subtle, a creak that lasted longer than most. Then came the break; roaring in agony as the wood splintered in half and the limb, no longer held aloft, began its swift descent to the ground underneath. Pine needles and dust erupted from their dormancy in plumes; waves of debris rippling outward in flakes and broken shards. What fell next was more solid. It did not splinter like the wood. It held firm, bending at the waste and knees to brace the impact. A filthy green scarf winding its way around the hidden face and neck was the only garment holding any color on it. The arms on the thing were thicker than Korra's thigh, looking like they could easily break a man's body in two. Hideous ink marks ran along the muscle; images of serpents and spiders crawling along bones and skulls of various species of animal, including a few that were frighteningly human. There was no hair on its head, only a mask that covered the corrupted flesh and ended in a pair of dark, shaded goggles. They might have once been some hue of blue, but were only grey glass now. The steps it took were heavy, lumbering, and loud. Boots with toes and soles of steel crashed through the stilled grove, carrying the behemoth forward. The giant raised its head, lowering the gaudy wrappings from its nose, and took a sharp inhale. Kaji found herself pleading to Agni that her body would cease its perspiring or that a heavenly breeze would carry their scent away. As the skeletal black pores in the center of the giant's head widened to allow entrance to the smells of the tree island, she dejectedly realized that the Sun God held no power over the misted vale. Here, where no ray of light could pierce the thick billows of spectral clouds, there was no hope to be had. The thing's neck twisted sharply in the direction of the rock pile and the three benders knew that they were found.

"You're mine," the thing cackled. Its voice was deep, almost human in its masculinity. A younger victim than the genderless drawl of the messenger and the leading puppet. Even with that assumption, the benders were far from comforted.

Booms followed the goliath as he charged them. Korra barely had enough time to slide open the stone above their heads before the first impact hit them. Disintegrated rock caked them in dust as Aang lightly jumped out, followed by Kaji and then Korra bringing up the rear and closing off the portal. A growl came from under the pile of rubble just as the Faceless fought its way out of the prison it made for itself in the caved in stone. The cloth on its face was tattered and had lost some of its color underneath the layers of dust and debris. A long gash ran along its right arm, starting from the wrist and ending at the shoulder blade. Green liquid oozed from it like swamp slime, pooling in a puddle on the forest floor. Kaji's eyes narrowed to better focus in on the ripped strands of material as the threads wove themselves into a dirty mesh. As the strings rewound themselves in a solid pattern, so too did the skin on the Nameless' arm.

Urgently the firebender turned to her companions, "I have a hunch. Aim your attacks at that scarf!"

No sooner had the words registered in Korra's head and she was gathering the water out of the air and sending it in twin whips toward the giant's neck wrappings. The first was blocked by the massive forearms of the beast, leaving not a scratch, but the second managed to nick the frilled edge. A shrill cry echoed through the mists, bouncing off of the trees and fog in mimicked cries, each growing dimmer and less repulsive until all that was left were whimpers. An enlarged gash ran along the thing's chest, dousing the black, sleeveless vest adorning it in luminescent emerald splashes. The benders stood still, awaiting the next occurrence. And as the fabric reattached itself into a whole once more, so too did the pain end. What was left them was a disappointed air and a very enraged monster. Korra cursed under her breath, wondering why nothing was ever as easy as one strike and done. Kaji, however, was working out a plan at one hundred electrical stimuli a second, her brain whirring through myriads of possibilities. The oncoming giant cut her short as she was flung out of the way by Korra's toned body. They hit the ground in a roll, regaining their footing and quickly moving to face the frustrated centipede's servant. Seeing that over thinking would not garner any results, the Fire Lord shrugged off her inhibitions and decided to simply put her theory into practice.

"Distract him," Kaji murmured in her lover's ear just before flitting to her right.

"It heals itself!" Korra cried out, wondering what the hell the girl had planned.

"I know that, just trust me," Kaji called back.

Korra sighed and centered her eyes back on the dangerous, infuriated bag of muscle preparing to make another charge. Sinking down into a full horse stance, she reached her hands into the ground, finding the familiar strings of chi tying her to the earth around her. Two massive boulders tore out of the ground and hung aloft on either side of her, hovering patiently until she gave the order to fly. And fly they did, rocketing through the air in perfect arcs toward their intended target. The Faceless got out one brief huff of laughter before ramming its fists into to oncoming projectiles. The rocks smashed into pieces, scattering in all directions like miniature meteorites gouging tiny furrows into the ground as they slowly embedded themselves back from whence they came. The scarf of the faceless hid its smile, but Korra was almost certain that it would be there- provided that the thing even had a mouth.

Korra's unsuccessful attack had given Kaji all of the necessary time to position herself behind the walking corpse. Her hands spun in two bright flashes, conjoining in an orb of writhing cerulean and crystal flames. Her feet carried her in a burst of fire, dodging the bits of boulder whizzing past the goliath's shoulders, and flung her into the sky in a leaping somersault. Her flip ended with her hands, wreathed in glowing burning energy, wrapped tightly around the thing's neck. Her entire body burst into light as the fire licked at the power she was affording it. Everything burned under its heat, eradicated without even a trace of ash left to mark it had ever existed. The mossy wool and rotting flesh gave way with ease, and the Faceless was not able to even give off a scream before it fell apart into nothing. When the dust had cleared, Kaji stood among the decaying remains with her left hand on her hip and her right hand holding a single green strand between her thumb and forefinger. With a smile nearing sadistic, she slowly let a small flame engulf the remnants of the creature, eating at it until it too was gone.

Korra and Aang held their breaths, not wishing to count their blessings just yet. The scarf had remade itself before; there was no guarantee that it would not do so again. Kaji, however, stood at ease, safe in the knowledge that there would be no resurrection. She had felt the last of the thing's essence drain away with the demise of the final strand of fabric. There was nothing left to be redone, not a speck or atom to be regenerated. She had perfectly destroyed it all. Once a few moments had passed without anything happening- no enraged spirit bursting from the ground and grinding them into fine sand- Korra and Aang shifted from their low, defensive stances.

"Not so invincible now," Kaji held her signature, self-assured smirk.

"The scarves must be their spirits," Aang thought aloud. "Their bodies were taken from them but their consciousness was preserved in those things. They keep the Faceless more or less… animate."

"Good thing Kaji put two and two together," Korra grinned, coming up to wrap an arm around the beaming firebender. Then, upon seeing the confident glow about the other girl, she added whilst pretending to inflate her head, "Not that she needs another ego boost."

"Are you insinuating something?" the Fire Lord teased, grabbing at Korra's hands as they further expanded away from her skull.

"Children, be quiet," Aang suddenly motioned for them to stop their foolishness. The small victory would not be worth the consequences of lowering their guard when the rest of the enemy had yet to make an appearance.

A ferocious growl from behind them proved his fears correct. Spinning within a mass of his element, the monk wasted no time in asking questions. Aang's pale arms sprang out from his body, funneling a gale of wind with the force of a small tornado toward the sound and the body it had come from. A hard thud indicated the success of the monk's assault even before his grey eyes located the limp body impaled on one of the lower branches of a gnarled fir. A bright yellow shawl fell loosely over the thin shoulders and lithe dark form of another Faceless. This one's physique was far smaller than the giant they had felled moments prior, deceptively masking the strength it held within. Its arms were long and angled, with plumage sticking out of the triceps and back forearms. A beak poked out from under the faded piss-colored scarf, made of faded bronze or brass. The eyes flitted maddeningly from one face to another as it assessed the foes facing it. Letting out a horrendous screech, it yanked itself off of the wood protruding from its chest. Sunbursts of yellow ran along the gash until it closed itself up, just as the wounds of the green giant had done before its demise.

"You know what to do," Aang called to the two girls behind him.

Grinning, Kaji took the first offensive. Her eyes filled with mirth and energy as her hands were once more consumed by her iridescent blue fire. Korra followed suit, burning her own brilliant copper and gold flames along her wrists and fingertips. Together, the girls burst forth, running alongside one another whilst maneuvering toward the demonic corpse. The Faceless raised its hideous arms, releasing a torrent of needlelike feathers in their direction. Kaji pulled ahead, easily vaporizing them with one swipe of her burning chi. The Faceless hissed as the heat hit its festered skin from pure convection. Kaji had dropped back to Korra's side as they neared their intended mark. The blue and yellow flames danced one within the other as they converged into a massive spearhead, illuminating miles of bleak terrain. Their voices rose in a fierce roar of pure power, mingling and becoming one as they unleashed all of their will in a force so strong, it cleared a path through the entire grove of trees and stretched a league beyond; a meteorite trail of destruction.

"Did we get it?" Korra gasped, sweat drops of blue ectoplasm dripping from her forehead.

Kaji scoffed at her, replying in a bored tone, "Nothing could have lived through that."

"Not quite," a call from above sounded before a series of thwack noises echoed from the ground. A sharp intake of breath was heard shortly after. Kaji followed the trail of metallic quills lining the dirt under her feet, tilting her gaze up to find one lodged securely in Korra's left shoulder. The girl's cobalt eyes were wide and her mouth was open in a manner similar to a fish out of water. Ethereal liquid seeped out of the wound, seemingly exaggerated for such a minor wound. Korra herself did not feel the paralytic poison stiffen her body until her legs buckled out from under her and she began to fall. Her descent was shortened by a pair of warm arms entombing her rapidly cooling form. Her eyes searched for an answer as to how the Faceless could have evaded their strike, noticing the harpy alight itself on a mound of displaced dirt still fizzling from the fires that had wrenched it from its resting place. Her eyes burned from the air stealing their moisture, but her eyelids were frozen in place with no intention of closing. The hand that had securely fastened itself around Kaji's protective arm fell limply to hang lifelessly some centimeters off of the ground.

"What did you do?" Kaji growled menacingly. Her voice had changed, growing deeper and darker, matching her eyes that had taken on a blackened amber. She held no intention of having that question answered. Carefully, the firebender placed the stricken Avatar on the ground, praying that Korra was not mortally injured. If the girl so much as scarred from the tiny feathered dart, there would be hell to pay for it.

"It is a creeping toxin," the bird-like puppet lectured, rising into the air until it was at an unreachable distance and yet still able to be heard. "Do not worry about her now. You should be more focused on yourself. She will die eventually… you die now!"

The harpy brought its arms into its body and launched itself into a bombing plummet. Kaji's fists ignited, held ready to carve through sinew and bone alike. Her boots dug into the malleable earth, reaching for a rooted perch. The creature was no more than a few yards away when it opened its arms with a flurry of razor feathers, each deadly and set on burying itself into Kaji's body. The girl didn't even flinch as she brought her arms down in a wave of fire; two wings of cerulean arching outward from her body in a shower of sparks. The left wing broke too close to the Faceless, buffeting it into a spinning careen. It was all the opening that Kaji needed. The soles of her shoes clicked with tiny sparks as she gathered enough momentum to fling herself into the sky and meet the dazed enemy as it attempted to regain control of its motor functions. The firebender had overshot somewhat, gouging out the harpy's eyes instead of grasping at the scarf upon collision. Shrieks from both the monstrosity and the girl were like knives through the quiet region. Kaji blindly grabbed for anything that felt like thick fabric, burning all that came into her grasp. Her flames were too bright to allow her to discern what she was making contact with, but she was also past the point of caring. The cries of the harpy muffled and died out, leaving only the enraged snarls of the Fire Lord as she continued to claw at nothing in particular. It was only when her right shoulder brutally hit the ground that her senses were knocked back into place and she realized that the Faceless was no longer under her. Panting, she shakily brought herself onto her knees, leaning heavily on her left hand while she nursed the tender areas of her right arm.

"Korra," she gasped, wheezing as her ribcage protested the exhalation.

"I'm here," an equally weak reply came from somewhere behind her. A sigh of relief escaped the firebender before she toppled to the ground. Her body felt like it had been beaten by a hundred men with clubs, but hearing Korra's voice- even as low and labored as it was- was enough to make the pain dim significantly.

"You must get up, Fire Lord," Aang's voice came from above her. "There are bound to be more and until Korra has regained her ability to stand, you are the only fire wielder here."

Getting up was the last thing Kaji had any intention of doing. Still, the nagging voice of her grandmother residing in her head was relentless in its agreement. Gritting her teeth, she found her balance and pushed herself slowly into a standing position. Her footing was insecure and she found herself hitting one of the nearby trunks for support. Her mainly undamaged left side complained at the mistreatment, but it was quelled by the other parts of her body seeking equal attention.

"Jusst give up," a familiar drawl came from above them. In a flash of darkness, Nopperabou Ichi fell from the canopy. The darkened scarf flitted in the rush of air that followed, swaying tauntingly. Kaji could almost envision the threads disintegrating between her fingers. "Masster Koh will not be kept waiting."

"Master Koh can go scr-" Kaji started, but was cut off when she was sent spinning by a backhand across her face. A scowling Faceless glared down at her fallen form, its arms folded haughtily over its chest.

"You do not get to speak ill of our Master, human scum," it murmured. The watery silkiness of its pronunciation did little to impede the underlying menace. Kaji only gave it a bloody smile, feeling where the hand had broken the skin of her lower lip.

"Always fight his battles for him, do you?" the firebender mocked. Her sarcasm melted into a scream of pain as her bruised arm was crushed into the ground by the Faceless' heavy booted leg.

"Get away from her!" Korra yelled, scooting herself up from the forest floor. Clinging leaves fell from her pants as her muscled thighs strained to hold up her weight, still partially frozen by the waning venom.

"Don't do anything you are going to regret, girl," another member of Koh's servants stepped forward from the veil, soon joined by the last member of the remaining guard. Red silk and blue wool flitted in the breeze gently caressing the undead and the spirits alike without distinction. The Faceless pressing down on the floored firebender grinned, its mouth a particularly nasty hole in its face, held together by a series of stitches on either side which strained against the skin which each uttered word. The scarf belonging to it was no more than two orange tassels connected by thick intertwining ropes.

"Oh," Korra quietly grimaced, "I really doubt that I'm going to regret doing this."

Her hands shot out from behind her back, plumes of sunset fire streaking out from her palms. The Faceless had no time to dodge it as it hit him square in the face. The gaping mouth unhinged into a frightening abyss as the strings attaching the upper jaw to the lower one melted from the heat. The weight on Kaji's arm lifted, allowing the girl to spring herself off of the ground and kick an arc of her own element at the red and blue scarf wearing puppets before they were able to lunge at the current Avatar. Aang supplemented his airbending to push back the leader of the pack and hold the stunned trio at bay whilst the two girls converged on the still reeling tasseled monster. Kaji, more cautious now, circled the thing until she was behind it. On cue, she jumped onto the creature's back, wrestling it to the foliage below and affording Korra the necessary shot at its exposed neck. The familiar dying scream sounded off, a most beautiful crescendo, before sinking into nothing more than guttural gurgles. Dismayed hisses sounded from the other Faceless. The blue scarf bearing one broke away from Aang's wind cage, propelling itself outward with the force of the gales compressing the others inward. A hooked hand broke through the trunk of a proximal pine; the three fingers embedded in the wood sloped into the menacing talons that had torn the bark asunder. The thing gave a warrior's yell before dislodging itself and coming at Korra and Kaji. The Avatar was the one to meet it head on. Her earthbending shifted the ground from beneath the creature's feet, causing it to slightly lose its balance. The pause was enough for Korra to come at it with a flaming uppercut that sent the puppet's body flying into the tree that had, just seconds prior, broken its fall. Kaji swept around Korra, jettisoning herself to her victim with fire from her feet, directing her sweeping, circular attack with her lowered left hand. The hand was raised in a delicate half-circle as she neared, sending a separate flux of fire from the walls of flame rising behind her. The arch hit the Faceless' neck, severing the head from the body completely. Korra quickly came in to finish the job with a gleaming sphere which she crashed into the smaller portion of the partitioned monster that had the Faceless' soul still wrapped around it.

"I can't hold them much longer," Aang forewarned as his leaden arms slowed in their circles, thus slowing the channeling air imprisoning the remaining Faceless.

"You won't have to," a bodiless boom broke through the wooded area. Korra and Aang paled in recognition of the voice and yet, never had they heard such ferocity and anger lace the slimy insect tone. Their familiarity to the oncoming force had never once beheld the true wrath that could be housed within the massive centipede body of the emerging Spirit. Had that not been frightening enough to send them into a cold sweat, there was also the actual physical appearance of the Stealer of Faces.

The gigantic legs, hundreds upon hundreds of them clacking together in a serenade of metallic scrapes and clangs, unraveled the serpentine body from its coil. The exoskeleton stretched and contracted as the anterior raised itself to loom over all of their heads. The Noh mask was gone, even the firebender whose grimace had always been Koh's visible rage was no longer in place. Instead, where there had always been something, there was now a gaping vortex of blackness. It looked as though some child had gone and used black crayon to wipe away the very existence of anything with a semblance to a discernible facial expression. Instead, the blackness shifted to portray the emotions of the abomination. If Azula's friend Ty Lee had been with them, she would have mentioned a sort of outward transmission of aura, not quite seen but certainly felt by all those in the vicinity.

Kaji, the only one yet to have met the nightmarish entity, was no less stricken by the gruesomeness of its visage. Still, her eyes caught on something else, something much smaller and distractingly white against the black of the main body. Her eyes widened with the knowledge that the small medallion had not be lost to them after all.

Tugging at Korra's shirt in the most inconspicuous manner, she whispered into the other girl's ear, "Look at what he has embedded into his chest plate."

Korra's eyes equally widened as she too caught sight of the bone betrothal necklace.

"I have had enough of this," the centipede shivered, "It is time to end it."

And with that, Koh had arrived.

**P.S: Well, I daresay that it will only intensify from here. I cannot promise anything on time, but reviews may be motivation for finshing up the next chapter instead of working on my Environmental Science coursework. And yes, that was a hint to leave a message. I love them, I frame them in my heart forever. Any and all grammatical mistakes are blamed on the Gremlins... not really, just my shoddy revision skills. Again, don't be shy and leave a review. 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' does not apply here. Flames make me cry, but they also let me know people are reading. Of course, nice reviews are always welcome too! Until next time wonderful readers.**


	37. Think of Home

**A/N: Hello everyone. I am glad to be updating, even though it is way late, I know. Becoming a trend for me. I hope everyone from the U.S. had a good Fourth of July. I know that I enjoyed the excuse for nearly setting my house on fire. Pyromaniacs are a misunderstood sort. Right... I have nothing more to write really and I know you all don't really care for long author's notes, so yeah. Enjoy. Please review. I was ever so lonely last chapter without any feedback.**

**Disclaimer: I own the charred remains of ten sparklers which I have yet to throw away. Unfortunately, none of them give me any rights to Legend of Korra. Wouldn't it be something if they did?**

Previously on Events Unexpected…

"The scarves must be their spirits," Aang thought aloud. "Their bodies were taken from them but their consciousness was preserved in those things. They keep the Faceless more or less… animate."

Tugging at Korra's shirt in the most inconspicuous manner, Kaji whispered into the other girl's ear, "Look at what he has embedded into his chest plate."

Korra's eyes equally widened as she too caught sight of the bone betrothal necklace.

"I have had enough of this," the centipede shivered, "It is time to end it."

And with that, Koh had arrived.

The Faceless used the distraction their master had provided to free themselves from the former Avatar's funnel prison. Nopperabou Ichi motioned to the red-scarfed puppet, indicating its orders to form a sort of scissoring movement from behind. The crimson silk fluttered as the greying muscles beneath it bunched and sprang out in a constant flux of movement as it silently slithered toward the flank of the still stunned human spirits. Nopperabou Ichi itself moved in a similar manner to the other side, hoping the grating of Koh's massive exterior skeleton would provide enough cover for it.

Korra gazed up at the writhing blackened hole that once held the dark spirit's many flickering visages. Her facial muscles twitched, longing to portray the overbearing anger and spite and, most disturbingly, fear that brimmed just beneath her fragile indifference. Her skin crawled with the exuding vileness spilling into the air around them, choking them in its thick heat and sharp cold. Beside her, gently brushing their hands together, Kaji stood transfixed. Her eyes felt as though they were not wide enough to fully take in the horror that was curled up before her. The razor legs that cut into the ground with such power as to get themselves partially stuck in the hardened earth; the plates of chitin moving against each other in a tight-knit pattern that left nearly nothing of the soft underside exposed; the darkness with which every fiber seemed to eradicate any light unfortunate enough to touch it. And she grew ever colder inside. Her inner fire billowed strongly within her chest cavity, but her fingers felt the familiar nerve death that accompanied the beginnings of frostbite. Both girls held their eyes upon the miniscule little bone circle that seemed so close yet so far away. Its whitened sheen was so foreign amongst all of the charcoal plate that it appeared to be hovering over the skin rather than embedded in it.

Korra felt a firm grip close around her neck an instant before her skin began to burn with a fire that was unnaturally cool and slimy. Her throat closed in as her flesh shriveled under the vice grip holding her in a choke that was quickly becoming more of a strangle than a submission. A softness behind her neck and a rustling of fabric revealed the assailant as one of the two remaining servants whom she had forgotten. Cursing her loss of concentration, the Avatar brought her arm back in a sharp elbow to the thing's abdomen. The Faceless was strong and held tightly to its captive, but Korra had been able to loosen the grip it had on her, thus alleviating some of the corrosive sludge that had been applied to her exposed throat. Her brain raced, already pumping epinephrine into her system in preparation for her body's fight for survival. Her foot grounded itself into the earth between the puppet's legs, burrowing into the dirt and rock for a steadier stance, whilst her arms hooked into the rotted muscle and strips of skin that clung to the arm that trapped her. Gritting her teeth against the flow of agony coming from her fingertips, now completely submerged in whatever substance oozed out of the thing's pores, Korra arched her back and rolled the creature over her as she fell to her knee. The Faceless, not expecting such a violent forward motion, was thrown clear off, landing in a pile of limbs and vermillion a few feet away. Korra's hands ignited instantly, covering the angry red blisters coating her hands with cleansing copper and bronze flames. The crumpled figure of her assailant lurched back into a standing position, rising spinelessly from the clusters of fallen leaves and bristles. Koh's servant hissed at the oncoming Avatar, having remembered the fate of its lower-ranking comrades.

Korra's first jab was dodged, pushed away lightly by a checking block from her opponent's right hand. Her next flaming uppercut nearly made contact with a fringe of the expensive sheet housing the thing's spirit, coming short when the Faceless dropped into a back flip. The legs, following the circular trajectory, came up quickly, pushing into Korra's chest and sending her stumbling. Her hand instinctively came up as the creature sent a left hook toward her head; turning the powerful attack against its owner, the Avatar spun on her heel and sent the monster careening to the floor.

A sudden gale of wind assaulted them, sending them aloft. Korra's body quickly adjusted to the loss of gravity as she redirected the winds in a more controlled manner with her own airbending. Her cerulean eyes immediately picked up the floating form of the Faceless she had been engaged with. Her hands, wreathed once more in superheated chi, grasped the leather jerkin that covered the puppet's torso, igniting and melting through it as though it were made of wax. The fringes of the crimson scarf folded into themselves with minute hisses from the steaming threads. All of the unnatural power that had once been under the servant's control left the flailing body as the flames hurriedly licked at the flammable cloth, eating away at it in their own ravenous hunger. Korra's hands shook with the effort of keeping the struggling creature pressed into the ground where it could not escape. It only took a few more seconds before the gesticulations ceased and the remnants of the body crumpled into fine ash and blew away on the lingering winds.

Aang saw the Faceless coming up on him a split second before its weapon whizzed down toward him. The spines on the back of the head of Koh's servant stood on end in preparation for a battle. The gloved hands clutched at the long staff of metal, tipped with its deadly blade; silver talons glistened against the dark reptilian scales that covered the exposed flesh. The golden button showed no emotion, nor was there any movement of the brow or face to indicate the strategies passing through whatever abominable brain the thing possessed. Aang did not feel like waiting to find out the next attack, choosing to blow some distance between the monstrosity and himself. His monk's robes billowed out as he leapt into the air, levitating on a current of his bending until he safely came down on a sturdy branch of the closest fir. Nopperabou hissed within the stifling material of its worn spirit, glaring at the elusive bending master as though it could make him spontaneously drop with only its gaze. The Guan Dao's heft was a minor deterrent when it came to fighting above ground, even with the superhuman strength allotted to the servants of the insect spirit. Even so, the primal bloodlust coursing through the ashen veins that had long ago been dried of their red current made such small disadvantages less than daunting. With a scream that echoed through the lands of fog and shadow, the Faceless leapt up, swinging the bulky shafted weapon down against the branches of the great tree. Ten cracked under the blade, snapping with resounding claps of thunder and falling to the ground atop one another. Aang's evasion was enough to keep him from serious bodily injury, but even he could not ignore the sting of pain where the Guan Dao had sliced through his sleeve and the edge of his left arm. The blue ectoplasm filtering out barely made a stain against the similar hue of the light fabric. Still, it was enough for the command servant to notice and look upon him with a glum sense of satisfaction.

The airbender swung his hands in twin arcs, body fluidly following the spherical motions of the channeling gales at his fingertips. It looked more like a dance than an actual attack, but the Faceless was not fooled by the elegant motions. The crowns of the trees blew lightly at first, away from the force of the former Avatar's dynamic form. As his arms drew the invisible circles surrounding his body, the groaning of the limbs and trunks grew to a crescendo of straining wood until, finally, the giant roots rose out of their earthen beds and flailed madly in the storm. Nopperabou Ichi anchored itself against its perch on an exceptionally massive tree with the sharpened weapon deeply plunged into the rings of the pine's body. The mighty giant struggled against the hurricane winds as most of its family were torn from their ancient graves and sent into the vast beyond, crashing somewhere far away to decompose and leave behind parched white skeletons amongst the swaying grass and filtering sands. The creaks echoed loudly, bouncing off of the fog as it was swept away from the eye of the tempest, retreating to calmer spaces. The increasing volume was suddenly cut off; the only indication of what was to come. Aang never slowed in his intricate movements as the final remaining tree capitulated to the sheer force of his element, splitting in half as the top was carried away whilst the bottom stubbornly held its place as though Atlas himself was holding it there. The airbender slowed his gusts, silencing the roar of air whipping past his ears and allowing the blood and fluid to come back into his dried grey eyes. The arrow on his head glowed brightly for what seemed like decades. No sign of his enemy remained however, his skin still tingled with paranoid nerves awaiting a hidden strike.

The strike he had been anticipating occurred from above. The mists that had begun creeping back to engulf him burst open around the rapidly descending form of Nopperabou, Guan Dao raised and prepared to cleave in two anything unfortunate enough to be in its path. The ground broke apart creating a cleft in the bedrock three meters down, the split snaking its way from where the edge had impacted to a good hundred yards away. Dust and grass and rock all fell away into the dark hole, spread two feet wide. A growl escaped the puppet's ghastly lips, its teeth chattering against each other as it searched for the target that had once again escaped its fury.

Aang glided away from the fatal onslaught. His feet slid across the land, barely grazing the earth as he circled around the menacing Faceless. His arms burst forth in a flurry of air, spiraling from his chest with a mighty exhale. The creature barely had time to turn its head and catch his eye with the one gruesome button attached to its festering face before it was sent spiraling into the abyss of its own creation. Aang, fully knowing that it would only temporarily deter the crazed killer, prepared his next attack. Looking around, he was disheartened to find himself alone. Despite the strength and dexterity of his element, it would be nearly impossible to permanently harm the creature without Korra or Kaji and their fire.

The shriek of wrath that came from the darkness before him shook the foundations of the field, sprinkling excess loose earth into the crevice. A hand reached out for the ledge, a few feet off from where Aang had positioned himself. The gloves were missing two silver tipped claws, one on the pointer finger and one on the pinky, revealing sickening broken nails that grew out in opaque curls. The creature had not even dug them in for traction when the ground gave a violent shudder that knocked Aang to his knees. The fissure trembled as the opening began to close in on itself, an ugly scar diminishing in the wake of the forces pulling it together. Nopperabou made a final effort to claw its way out of the prison, but it was to no avail. The earth resealed itself too quickly, snapping shut around the body and reducing it to nothing more than broken bone and imploded organs. The fingers still outside fell limply in separate digits, rolling along the ground until they settled like discolored little sausages among the grass and roots.

Aang looked up, thankful to see Korra's dirt-smeared face worriedly checking his condition. The two Avatars nodded their affirmed assurances, noting that neither was too hurt. Korra then turned her attention to the newly formed clearing, taking in the grooves left from the battling roots and the mounds of stone and sand that had been summoned from the dead earth during the upheaval. Her heart clenched, but not because of the state of turmoil that pervaded the surrounding area; her heart clenched because they were alone. Neither Kaji nor Koh were there with them.

It happening so quickly that even lightening would have seemed slow in comparison. One moment, Korra was with Kaji and the next she had been torn away by some blurred assailant. To her other side, the airbending master also vanished, leaving the stupefied Fire Lord facing the massive combination of insect and dark deity alone. Koh's mouth-less laughter filled the air, suffocating her; whether the effect was made better or worse by the obvious lack of a mouth from which to emit such a sound, Kaji could not have begun to guess. All she knew was that she had to pull herself together and replace the melting façade of indifference that was her only shield against the powerful Spirit. Koh's enormous body unraveled itself, allowing him to fall with an earthshaking thud to the forest floor. His centipede form knocked over a few hapless saplings in the way of its bulk as he came to slither up to the frozen girl. The Stygian gap that was his 'face' lowered itself down to sit just inches away from her, so close that she could feel the slight shift in the air as it inhaled and smell the rancid corruption as it exhaled. Her eyebrows quirked, drawing together slightly before she was able to regain any semblance of self-discipline. All of her teachings, her stratagems, her firebending prowess, all of it seemed so worthless to her now. She was facing something that no human had a sliver of a chance at defeating. Her masters had never had the ability to prepare her; who could know how to take down a god besides the gods themselves?

Two hands reached out from the ebony mass, pale things with perfectly lacquered fingernails that were just sharp enough to lightly scratch Kaji's pallid cheeks. Her mouth opened, wordlessly gasping for something to emit be it a scream or a final plea for help that could not reach her. The hands traced down her jawbones, grazing her chin before running down the length of her throat. They caressed her pulse, digging slightly against the skin, completely covered in gooseflesh. The thumbs stayed pressed against her trachea as the rest of the hands came to rest on either side of the milky expanse. Kaji's watery golden eyes widened in horror as the digits tightened around her neck, squeezing until all that she could get in or out were short gasps of air. Her crimson lips paled, turning a slightly darker shade of peach from her other skin, then taking on a mildly bluish tinge that came with the oxygen deprivation.

"That's it," the slimy voice coming from the pool that had birthed the hands slowly choking the life from her spoke, "Give in to the fear and helplessness. There is nothing that can keep you from me now… and since you have somehow managed to thin my ranks so much, it would seem a fitting punishment to have you as the first of the new order, would it not?"

Sweet poison dripped out of Kaji's ears and mouth, invisible tendrils of her body trying to reject the invading cold that travelled from the killing hands to the rest of her. Inside, she cried out to her limbs, bidding them to ignite with her magnificent gift from Agni, to devour the abomination that would harm her and her beloved Korra. Koh's grip was a prison to both her mind and her body however; her spirit beat against the cage of horror and despair, beating itself raw against the hardened shackles of her own weakness. All to no avail.

She could sense the separation occurring between her physical and ethereal forms. Her eyes, which had seen nothing but black since her heartbeat had slowed to a creeping pace, began to formulate images again. Only, these images were not connected, more like she was flying over herself and Koh's grotesque body. The corpse, her corpse, fell away as it was released from the dead hands which retracted back into the obsidian mirror that was Koh. It was with a fine golden thread and two needles made of bone that they reappeared. The crochet needles spun the satin in quick rows, forming a small square, then elongating it into a rectangle. Kaji's spirit shrunk away from the spinning strings, instinctually shying away from the glimmering gold weaving. As the cloth grew into its intended shape, the ends began to levitate towards her. Her feet kicked at the air, urgently propelling her forward and away. The effort felt as though she was swimming in thickened molasses, slow and frustratingly lacking in progress. The threads themselves were slippery eels sliding through the dripping sweet mixture, gliding ever nearer until they wrapped themselves around her foot and up her leg. Kaji was finally able to scream as she was rapidly dragged down, back to Koh and his manic weaving hands. The strand of scarf edged farther up her body, covering and consuming one leg, then the other; moving up her lower body and then up to pull tightly around her chest. Her arms reached out, trying to grab a hold of anything to keep her from the prison of the satin. The fabric caught first her left arm, then her right, pulling them both flush against her prone body until she looked as though some giant golden spider had spun its deathly silk around her in anticipation of a meal.

Suddenly, just before her face would have been engulfed in the darkness of her cocoon, the fabric was torn loose. Her body spun with the quickly unraveling binds, flinging her in a spinning flight toward her prone body. The impact of her spirit reintegrating itself with the sinew and bone was nothing short of electric. Her nerves were alight with fire, only this fire was not warm and soothing but feral and fierce. Her eyes shot open, rods and cones alike igniting the fields around her in varying colors of grey and green and brown. Her mouth was wide, taking in breathes as a starving man would take in fire flakes. Her back arched up, supported by her elbows and forearms, legs kicking out as the stimuli raced through her veins and synapses. The familiarity of her fingers digging into the soft clumps of clay was enough to bring tears to her golden orbs; nothing feeling quite as welcome as the life flowing back into her cold cadaver. Then the world upturned on itself. Her body was weightless, flying through to air in a tornado of trees and clouds. Her hands reached involuntarily for any sort of perch they could find, coming up short and sending back waves of panic. Her hair whipped in her face, pricking at her sensitive eyes and tickling her nostrils. The bellows of the storm filtered out all other sound until all she knew was the gale. A rock came whizzing out of nowhere, striking her hard in the stomach and knocking the air from her lungs. The burning returned until the air currents were so strong that her diaphragm was not necessary for them to enter her lungs. It was exhaling that became an arduous task then.

Her unbidden soaring came to a swift end, sending the firebender plummeting to the earth, so far away and yet drawing close at an alarming speed. Her body quite suddenly missed the floating sensation, despite the fear coiled in her belly. At least it had been less definite than the accelerated plunge back to the ground below. Kaji's fists ignited, the fire spreading up her arms until she looked to be a phoenix, diving into the rock that would be its demise; until another draft hit her and the loose material of her shirt drew her hard to the right. Her back hit one of the trees falling with her, causing a brief spurt of agony from her spine. Still, she was able to clumsily turn herself around and reach for the splintered bark. Her fingertips bled with the many chips that embedded themselves into the soft flesh, but she paid them no mind. Her concentration was completely on the upcoming meadow. The grass, as soft as it would have been, would not cushion her when she was descending at such a velocity. Only feet away from the ground, Kaji used her firebending to push her away from the tree in a burst of heat and broken wood. She then somersaulted in the air, wreathing herself in sapphire flames as she hit the grassland with her shoulder and continued her roll for a few more yards. The fire died away as she just stayed, lying on her back with no intentions of moving. Her entire frame felt like a komodo-rhino had run her over and then sharpened its horn against her skin. Her face was a smattering of bruises and cuts, but they were shallow and would heal. It was the pressing discomfort in her lower ribcage that worried her. Nothing felt broken, but even a fracture would not bode well when she still had no idea where Koh and the others were. Despite the pressing urgency of her situation, Kaji's body simply refused to do anything besides the compulsory duties that kept it alive. Breathe in. Breathe out. Ignore the incessant itch on the tip of her nose. Breathe…

"Did you think it was over?" Kaji cringed at the sound. It was less sharp and menacing than before, indicating that the Spirit had not fully escaped the rage of the tempest either, but that did little to alleviate the Fire Lord's explosive panic attack. With much effort and a plethora of moments where Kaji felt that she would faint from either the vertigo or the pain, the firebender was finally able to manage to lift herself onto her feet. The huddled mass of legs and plate unraveling itself from a grove of fallen tree trunks and debris likewise found it difficult to come to an upright position. Koh's pincers minced an offending trunk into nothing but sawdust as he continued to disentangle himself. Kaji did not feel it in her best interest to give him the time to finish the job. Her legs were battered and weak, but she still was able to convince them to carry her as quickly as they could away from the writhing centipede.

She had only managed a few steps when she turned back to the enraged and still trapped Koh. Her eyes landed on the patch of his plate that held the betrothal pendant that had brought her to the accursed spiritual plain, glimmering in an almost mocking way. Her better judgment begged her to keep running, to take advantage of the arthropod's sharpened rifts and spikes, each acting as hooks against the destroyed trunks and branches, holding the vile monster at bay; her mind, however, knew that she would most likely not get another shot at the only piece of hope still left to her. Giving a desperate and resigned scream, the Fire National turned on her heel and sprinted full pelt at the twisted form of the Face Stealer. Each stride nearer to the Spirit drew her heart closer to cardiac arrest, but she moved onward passed the tangled brambles and debris littering the clearing. Her clothing snagged against the deadened fingers of twigs; her ebony hair caught sharply on the sticks protruding out of the whitening ghost trees; her body fought passed all of the minor obstacles with a concentration resigned for those heading toward their probable demise. The pincers at the end of Koh's tail flashed past her, dripping with their foreboding poison, promising a slow and painful death to any who were unlucky enough to get pricked. Kaji weaved in and out of the frantic swings, rolling and leaping to the forty-five of the blind strikes, always careful to remain as far from Koh's field of vision as possible whilst also drawing nearer to the massive bug's chest plate.

Another twist of the giant serpentine coil and the armored underbelly was uncovered, grey scales dripping with dew from the crushed grasses they had been laying on moments before. Kaji performed a daring jump, using her fire to add a flourish to a series of cartwheels she used to gain a burst of speed before sinking her feet into the soft turf and unleashing a ferocious blast of fire underneath her that sent her rocketing into the body of the powerful Spirit. Her own body smacked into the unyielding chitin like a fly hitting a boulder, yet her hands somehow managed to grab onto one of the chinks in the plate despite her disoriented mind. The shriek of anger indicated that her presence had been noticed and that she had seconds remaining before the giant centipede rolled over once more, crushing her underneath its bulk with no chance of survival. The slickness of the moistened segments aided her in sliding her way down the rainbow arch that the Spirit had formed in its throws of frustration; her footing was far from stable however, and she found herself losing her coordination in vertigo as the solidity of Koh's belly suddenly was no longer there to support her. Golden eyes flicked briefly to the ever shrinking medallion as her weight pulled her down and away from it. Kaji clamped her teeth together, aware that the jolt of her next attempt at retrieving the infernal thing would more than likely cause her to bite threw her tongue; her arm shot out from its rigid place by her side, fingers splayed and prepared to catch one of the gigantic legs scissoring underneath her. Her grip was made at the joint- more specifically, the joint embedded itself into the center of her palm. Kaji refused to do more than moan out her displeasure as she had more pertinent things to focus on. Like the fact that she was still being spun rapidly toward the ground in the current twist that the enraged Spirit had initiated. The concern was partially unfounded as the ends of the razor legs hit the earth with force enough to shake the surrounding area in a minor earthquake. The aspect that went less than well for the firebender was the fact that the spike of the joint not only dug further into her flesh with the jolt but also cracked the bones in her hand as the leg straightened itself and the two portions of the bend snapped together over the fragile ligaments and tendons holding her fingers together. Kaji took several leveling breathes before the searing white spots of pain covering her vision cleared enough for her to notice the small bit of fortune smiling upon her: the leg she was currently tethered to was an arm's length away from the object she was after. Acting swiftly so as to keep from being blinded by the agony again, the firebender swung herself between the thrashing limbs and underneath Koh's torso. Her hand clasped the corner of the bone, finding the resistance it gave disconcerting but also useful as it held her aloft beneath the behemoth body.

Her fingers must have sent some sort of nervous stimuli to the Spirit, betraying her intentions, as the legs around her began to bend themselves and quickly lower the length of the anterior of the centipede to the floor. Kaji's hand was unlocked and her skin tore between her middle and ring fingers, dropping her in a mad swing which would have been halted by the betrothal pendant had the blasted thing stayed in its place. Instead, Kaji found herself sailing onward, undeterred, as the bone circle unlocked itself with a tiny pop. Her fall was broken by her shoulder and the side of her head, knocking her nearly unconscious in the process. Her cranium swam, but her feet were somehow able to carry her out of the way of the colossal body on its collision course with the ground. Her frantic run was converted into a desperate flight as the waves of impact propelled her a few yards away from Koh's gruesome form. Heaving a sigh, the Fire Lord dropped to her knees, readying her body for the inevitably rough contact with the ground beneath; such contact was unexpectedly halted by two gentle arms wrapping around her battered frame and pulling her into a comfortable embrace.

Korra and Aang had run the moment they heard the crashing noises coming from far to their right. The expanse of level landscape gave them a foggy view of a familiarly large shape twining itself around a mass of grey shadow concealed by the mists. Korra pumped her legs faster than she had ever expected they were able to go, knowing in her gut that where Koh was, Kaji would surely be as well. The Avatar skidded to a standstill as the deadly end of Koh's tail crashed not a centimeter in front of her. The tip of her hide boot split under the knife's edge of a pincer though she was thankfully saved from any exposure to the Spirit's toxins. Veering hard right, she circled the beast, keeping one eye out for her lover and the other safely scanning Koh's movements so as to not become one of his victims through sheer lack of vigilance. Her pupils dilated as she saw a blurry flash of red and black sling itself out from under the mass of legs and exterior skeleton. Her breath caught as the figure was sent sprawling in the dust when Koh crashed all of his weight down onto the earth. Korra kept her balance only because of her earthbending, absorbing the impact and redirecting it outward. She then wasted no time in charging toward the falling body of the Royal, managing to catch her just before she hit the floor. Holding onto Kaji tightly, afraid that she would somehow turn to dust and shadow were Korra to let her go, the Avatar pulled them both up and started half dragging half carrying the barely conscious firebender away from the deity swiftly regaining his bearings.

Aang was there not a moment later, helping Korra with the stumbling girl. Kaji's eyelids flickered, heavy from drowsiness but also fighting for wakefulness because of the adrenaline still burning through her veins. Korra felt the Fire Lord's lips graze against her ear, a sliver of air escaping from them and making her shiver. There had been words within the exhale, but they had been too soft to comprehend. Kaji's feet hitting the floor and jerking them to a stop, however, was clearly understood. Korra placed her on the ground, wondering if it was pain that had caused the unwise break in their retreat. Her hypothesis was discarded as Kaji opened her left hand, revealing the small necklace adornment that was now covered in blood and sweat but still managed to keep the majority of its sheen. Her fingers closed over it, then held it up for Aang to see. Her mentor's uneasy smile at their change of fortune quickly vanished as he was thrown back by a sudden powerful force.

Korra grimaced, coming to stand protectively in front of the still body of her beloved. She felt Kaji's hand wrap loosely around her ankle, giving a small squeeze- but whether the squeeze was one of reassurance or a plea for her to flee, she was unsure. The Avatar steeled herself, deciding that it mattered not. All she needed was the affirmation that her firebender still lived and breathed. Nothing could give her more incentive to hold her ground than having someone she loved to fight for. Koh's being was marred by protrusion of trees that had forced themselves into his flesh by the winds that had carried him to the scarred section of the meadow. His movements were less fluid, clumsier through injury to tens of his hundreds of legs. Still, it was not nearly enough for Korra to have believed that she held a fair chance at beating him. He was a Spirit and could not be killed within the ethereal world. Her own body would also regenerate itself, but a blow strong enough could send her reeling back into her body, or sever the connection to it leaving her trapped within the Spirit World forever. Neither of those outcomes was an option.

Koh gave a battle cry that was so unlike his usual silver-tongued voice, charging her with the velocity of an iron train screaming down the railroad tracks. The few straggling remnants of pine were crushed like so many pieces of pottery, the chips becoming little doves in flight as they were haphazardly thrown aside. Koh's black depression opened to unleash the pale hands, only there were more than before. Instead of ten outstretched fingers, each grabbing for a hold of flesh to tear apart, there were now one hundred, connected to ten hands and five bodies leaning out. The bodies were hideous. Some had large portions of their pallid skin and pink muscles torn off, showing the stained beige bones of their ribs. Others were missing parts of their heads or necks, causing the things to loll to the side or bend back against their bumpy spinal knobs in unnatural ways. They had no faces, just ridges and valleys where a lip might have been or an eye socket belonged. The nostrils were likewise covered by an expanse of papery epidermis, smooth and indicating no breath as though the figures had already been suffocated by the abhorrent membrane. Korra's hands flicked out as her stance deepened into the earthbending horse, bringing forth a series of walls of stone and crust. The first one held no visible effect; shredded by the sheer speed and mass that hit it. The second buffer held more than the first, but not by much. Each stone aegis lasted longer than its predecessor, using friction if nothing else to slow the advance of the creature of nightmare. Once Koh's straightforward trajectory was no longer worthwhile, the Spirit used the expanse of pick-axe-like legs to lift himself over the bulwarks, crawling over them as though it took no effort at all to haul his immense body up the high walls.

Korra used the distraction to pick Kaji up and drag her as far from the oncoming attacker as possible. Her path moved toward Aang's body, leaning against an outcropping of boulders and the carcass of a fir. His eyes fluttered open as she drew near; hands reached out to take the broken girl from her arms. Once the Fire National had been propped up as much as her limp form would allow, Korra took out the necklace and held it out for her mentor to take. His fingertips grazed it, sending a small fountain of canary sparks fizzing out of the point where his skin met the bone. Korra fumbled with the necklace as Aang's hands instinctively let it go and curled protectively into his chest.

"It appears as though only you and Kaji are able to touch this," he mused.

"Why?" the Avatar traced the curve of a wave with her little finger, marveling at the cool smoothness of it.

"Perhaps it is because it is a tool to travel between worlds," the airbending master peered down at the intriguing artifact. "That would mean that anything of the Spiritual World, those who belong here, will be rejected by it as we are eventually rejected by the corporeal world that is bridged through it."

"So anything living would be able to use it to go back home, but no dead may be transferred back?"

"Precisely. I believe Koh felt that it would be a failsafe in case Kaji was somehow able to get her hands on it after he separated her spirit and body. With the body killed in the Spiritual World, she would not have been able to use it as a transit."

"Very good Master Aang," three sets of heads turned to the looming shadow of the cruel Spirit towering over them. The faces of his prisoners stretched in mock smiles, frighteningly grotesque when there were only the folds of dimples and the thin lines stretched wide to show for the grins. "It seems that, once I have taken the body from your firebender, there will be little hope for her left… not that she had much hope in the first place."

"I won't let you touch her!" Korra stood, shifting into her favored left cat stance. The light, lithe pose was perfect for the beginnings of a waterbending form; her element of birth.

"You may try," Koh chuckled darkly before lunging at her. Korra knew that she could have easily evaded the slow strike, but it would have likely hit those she was trying to save. Instead, she gathered her arms to her centerline, calling forth a torrent of condensed mist and dew into a formidable ice wall. The frictionless surface cracked under the weight of Koh's body slamming into it, but it held, sliding his attack to the side. Korra melted her redirecting slide and released her hold on the water, allowing it to splash back into the parched earth. Her stance shifted into a more solid half-horse as she propelled a series of large spheres of earth she had torn from the ground at her feet in two conjoining arcs. The orbs of rock collided with the fore of Koh's centipede body, raining the remnants of broken stone and compacted sand in a wide diameter. The arthropod shuddered, but looked to be without a scratch on him. There was only a thin layer of dust to show for Korra's efforts.

Koh's tail came like a whip, crashing through the air where Korra had been standing only moments before. Her lungs heaved with the effort of keeping up with both her offense and defense when the Spirit showed no signs of fatigue or injury. Even the stalks of wood sticking from him were visibly not piercing through his hardened inner flesh; rather, they were being held aloft by the curve of the outer armor plating. The pincers dripped with the vile venom, measuring her location and the best possible way for it to catch her unguarded. The centipede swung high right with its body, aiming to crush anything too slow to evade it. Korra made the jump out of the way with relative ease, but her escape was short-lived. The spiked tip of the Spirit's poisonous tail struck out, directly aimed at her turned face. Korra's irises pulled back, widening her pupils to an anomalous size as the reflection of Koh's finishing attack bore down on her. There was no time to block. No time to gather her bending. No time to even call out for help. There was only the quickening of her blood as her death approached. And then, when there was not even a hair's breadth between the Avatar and the Face Stealer, the world erupted.

Fire and heat spilled out from all corners of the meadow, falling from the sky like a meteorite. Koh's massive form was thrown clear of them, landing in a charred heap across the expanse of grass. His shrieks of rage echoed clearly across miles, but a heavy mass held him down, not allowing him to break free from the sweltering warmth.

Korra's eyes felt like they had just been opened to the sun. The burn was uncomfortable, but it sure as hell beat being skewered at the end of the giant pincers. Her legs buckled and she would have fallen had a soft breeze not gently pulled at her. The caressing winds stubbornly pushed her, stumbling, until she could just make out Aang and Kaji sitting to her left. Without the support of the air around her, she could no longer keep her body from sinking to the soft grass next to them. It was nice to feel the pulse running through her mentor's body and grip the uninjured hand of her firebender.

"Korra?" Kaji spoke up after a few seconds of quiet, "Korra, what is this? Did you go into the Avatar State?"

Korra shook her head, knowing that if she had, she would have surely ended the line of reincarnations- a price even she knew was too high when bartered for the slim chance that she might have come out of it alive. Their unspoken question regarding who their mysterious savior happened to be was answered by a deep, melodic voice coming from seemingly everywhere, "It is good to see you all again, though I do wish it were under better circumstances."

The light filtering through the fields gradually dimmed in intensity until the three benders were able to take in their surroundings. Korra's intake of air was matched by Kaji's gasp and Aang's cocked eyebrow. A ways across the expanse of grasses, a glorious golden dragon tussled with the charcoal cylinder that was Koh. The fire wyrm had completely wrapped itself around the centipede, trapping it against the ground like a massive sunlight shackle. The talons digging into the armor produced streams of tar-like blood, deepening the furrows as the dragon's prey fought to dislodge it.

Kaji's smile beamed with the light of the animalistic form of her deity. Her voice rang out on the tides of crisp blue sky as she called out his name, "Agni!"

"Yes little daughter," he welcomed. "I do apologize that I was not able to come sooner for you. Koh's world is one of darkness and dank morbidity, but it was also one of water. Tui and La were eventually able to open a channel for me to come through."

"You're here now," Korra sighed in relief, noticing that her leaden body was far too heavy to lift at the moment. The fear she had felt dripped out of her pores and fell away leaving her tired more than anything else, "That's all that matters."

"So it is," the dragon's growl nearly made the words unintelligible. Koh was not done yet and his struggles were becoming ever more violent. The Sun Spirit and the benders alike knew that the more time they wasted, the more chances they afforded the dark deity.

"Grab the necklace, the both of you," Aang beckoned. Korra picked up the talisman from where it had fallen to the ground, holding it in the palm of her hand so that Kaji was able to make contact with it as she laid her own palm over Korra's.

"Now, think of your world, your home. Imagine yourselves transposed there through the medallion."

The air rushed around them, sending their hair flying in streams of brown and black. Kaji's free arm wrapped around Korra's waist, careful not to upset the torn flesh of her hand. Korra mimicked the gesture with her own, holding their bodies flush against each other as the world melted away from them and they were sent into the swirling abyss. The wind took the breath out of their lungs until colors began to blot out their vision. The disorientation was too much and the girls had to squeeze their eyes shut against the growing nausea.

And then they were still. Soft carpet gave out underneath their feet and curtains billowed against the skin of their arms. Korra untwined their arms, miffed that she was still blue and ghostly. A sharp tug drew her in the direction of a small couch where her body was lying on its back. The welcome familiarity of her essence slipping back into its shell was beyond relieving, it was cathartic. Kaji held out her hand, helping the Avatar regain her footing and remedy the soreness of her joints. Shy smiles graced their lips for a brief moment before they burst out into shouts of joy. They were back. No more endless deserts of sand and grass. No more careful seclusion due to burning body temperature. And- the most gratifying- no more Koh to haunt their every waking thought. Opening her palm, Kaji glanced at the key between worlds nestled in her skin. The magic was wearing off, leaving the thing cracked and ugly until it completely disintegrated, pouring through her fingers onto the plush carpet.

"That's the end of that then," Kaji beamed. Korra returned her smile, drawing the firebender's face gently into her own. Their lips met in a chaste kiss, tentatively seeking out the blissful company of having the other near. Then the embrace became more feverish, possessive and overwhelming. Korra pressed Kaji into a nearby wall, tracing her arms and hips while the older girl ran her hands through her silken hair. They broke only to take in air, taken aback by the fire curling in their bellies.

It was then that the door to the room burst open and ten Earth Kingdom soldiers filed in. The man in charge pointed a calloused finger in Kaji's direction, yelling, "Seize the firebender!"

**P.S: That is the end to the Spirit World arc of the story, but don't fret. I still have a couple more chapters to do to wrap up this story and I am still thinking of writing the Prequel under A:TLA with an Azutara pairing. Hope the chapter was to everyone's liking, but I will never know unless you put in one of those magical reviews by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. Thank you to everyone still favoriting and following this story. 'Til next time.**


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